The Bristol County Enslaved History Research Project seeks to situate previous research on enslavement in the town of Bristol, Rhode Island within the larger geographic locus of Bristol County, Massachusetts as it was defined in the 17th and 18th centuries when the towns of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, Rhode Island were a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Since the start of my research in 2021, it has become clear that the geographical boundaries of the area that is now Southern Bristol County, MA, (Seekonk, Dighton, Rehoboth, Swansea, Somerset) and Bristol County, RI (Barrington, Warren, Bristol) were fluid, with enslaved people moving across changing town and state lines (East Providence, Barrington, Warren, and Bristol were moved from MA to RI in 1747). As such, many of the enslaved who lived within one of these towns also lived and labored in another, and/or were removed to yet another when bequeathed, sold, hired out, manumitted, or emancipated. Thus, it is imperative to analyze documents in both states.
This research, combined with a general passion for genealogical work and innate curiosity, has sparked a strong commitment to making the information found widely available to others with similar interests, both academic and genealogical. By performing this research and compiling it into a database, I hope that my work can enable someone to find peace by connecting them to that small byte of information that settles a proverbial puzzle piece into place, personally or professionally. Whether it is the two-a.m. scholar or an undergraduate student working on their thesis, it is my goal to make this information as publicly available as possible to assist in the growth of the field and to help restore the historical and social narrative.
Since 2021, extensive primary source research into the history of enslavement within Bristol, RI has identified a total of 491 enslaved or likely enslaved African, African-American, and Indigenous People between 1680 and 1808, a period during which more than 104 families including judges, farmers, captains, merchants, and members pivotal to the town’s founding owned slaves. With the earliest document located to date dating to the 1689 inventory of the estate of Capt. Nathan Hayman, which valued “his negro woman” at £12 - a mere nine years after the founding of the town- it quickly became apparent that Bristol’s involvement in the business of slavery and human trafficking far surpassed the DeWolf family - the one family openly discussed in relation to Bristol and its history of enslavement.
This data has since been presented as the Bristol Timeline of Enslavement, spanning 56 feet in a physical representation of each enslaved or likely enslaved individual, allowing the visualization of each individual identified in the recorded history at the first moment they appear in the written record. Though the timeline presented an impactful and physically interactive dataset, it was felt that there was more to be done outside of locating and proverbially reshelving the data. As such, the Bristol Enslaved and Free Person of Color Database was born-digital and, as of June 2023, currently holds 1,197 entries in a twenty-four-factor base Airtable database that includes source transcriptions and images where possible. The database is a constant work-in-progress and is ever evolving.
While this information has been gathered and compiled, it is not the intention to tell one's story but rather to present the facts and proof of their existence as they are currently known. Each entry is tagged for the individual and, for those with multiple entries, organized chronologically to allow us to follow them through time and, if possible, place. Originally ending in 1808 with the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, the database has grown to include those who were known to have been formerly enslaved and those within the ambiguous, legal gray area of servitude in the post-Gradual Emancipation North where their lives and labors were on their face that of enslavement but the language surrounding their existence was cloaked in the term “servant.”
Research into the enslaved and practice of enslavement in Bristol, RI, and the larger Bristol County is ongoing and the database is subject to growth.
Researcher
Courtney Garrity is a community historian studying the history of enslavement and emancipation in early Bristol, Rhode Island. Having completed her Bachelor of Arts in History at Roger Williams University, she has spent two semesters working with the Rhode Island Slave History Medallion and a year interning with the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society. She has also interned with the Rhode Island Historical Society on several instances. Graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2022, she was the recipient of the President’s Core Values Medallion, the Ronald J. Davis Memorial Award, and the Herodotus Award for excellence in departmental work and service. Courtney is currently working to expand her research and is in the process of writing an article for peer-review publication. She is currently attending Providence College pursuing a master's in History.
Research Partners & Support
The Bristol County Enslaved History Project would not be possible without the support of the following individuals and organizations:
Dr. Catherine Zipf
Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer
Eleanor C. Dobson, of www.historicelly.com
History Department, Roger Williams University
Jerrad Pacatte
The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities
Bibliography of Sources & Suggested Readings
Bibliography of sources and suggested readings to come
Further Research
To view the digital version of the Bristol Timeline of Enslavement, please visit www.bhpsri.org
To view the genealogical research performed by the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, please visit https://bhpsri.org/genealogical-research
For additional projects relating to the free and enslaved people of color in Bristol, please visit https://www.researchbipochistory.org/
For more on the mapping of the enslavement in Bristol, please visit https://www.historicelly.com/
Header image: Estate Accounting of Tristam Bowerman, c. 1713. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts US Wills and Probate Records, Bristol County, Probate. Wheaton Bowen - Alice Brady, (Folio) Image 61 of 1173