S2E1 - The Dominion of New England

Hello and welcome to the Story of Rhode Island. The podcast that tells you the story of Rhode Island’s fascinating history. In Season 1 we witnessed the founding of the Rhode Island Colony and then watched its leaders spend the next several decades preventing it from being destroyed. As we dive into episode 1 of season 2, we see that the struggles for the radical little colony around Narragansett Bay are far from over. It’s August of 1687 and standing uncomfortably at a tavern entrance in Newport is a wealthy, 55 year old man named Francis Brinley. Brinley knows that everyone in the Newport tavern despises him because of the new administrative position he’s been given. While looking around the tavern for an open seat he feels a wave of resentment directed towards him. He knows that he’s a painful reminder of the new government that’s been imposed on Rhode Island without its people’s consent. Rhode Island is no longer its own colony as it is now but a mere province in the Dominion of New England. The Dominion of New England was created 1686 when England’s King, King James II, decided that the American colonies needed to be more tightly controlled. To ensure this happened King James merged the colonies into a single union and appointed Sir Edmund Andros to be Governor of the Dominion. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have all had their charters revoked and their rights severely limited. And Francis Brinley, the man standing at the tavern entrance, has just been appointed Chief Judge of the Rhode Island province, making him the highest ranking royal official in the region. It’s his responsibility to ensure that the people around Narragansett Bay adhere to the laws imposed on them by this new government. But to the people in the Newport tavern, he is much more than that. He is a constant reminder of how a monarchy thousands of miles away is now infringing on the rights they so greatly admire. As Brinley finally makes his way over to a table he hears the men around him snicker as he walks past them. Although frustrated by the resentment directed his way, Brinkley firmly believes that while the people of Rhode Island might be upset now that they’ll eventually accept this new state of being and forget all about the rights they once thought were so important. Unfortunately for Brinley and the British Monarchy, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The dominion will illustrate just how much the Rhode islanders value these rights and how these rights are bringing them closer together with their fellow colonists while moving them further away from their mother country. The story of the Dominion of New England and how it foreshadows tensions that will eventually turn into a full blown revolution is what we’ll cover in Episode 1 of Season 2 of the Story of the Rhode Island Podcast.

Intro Music

The tavern building that Francis Brinley finds himself sitting in is one he’s quite familiar with. Long before it became one of Newport’s most popular watering holes, it was Brinley’s home. He had it built back in 1652 but sold it a couple of decades later to its current owner, William Mayes, a man who then turned it into a tavern in 1687. This historic establishment will remain in business for the next 3 centuries and is known today as the White Horse Tavern. Eventually, William Mayes walks over to Brinley and asks what he would like to drink. The two men look at each other somewhat awkwardly for a second, knowing that the rest of the men in the tavern are probably bad mouthing Brinley. The despised man decides he could use a strong drink so he orders a “flip”, a mixture of strong beer and some of that famous Rhode Island rum that’s quickly becoming one of the colony’s most manufactured products. When the drink is delivered, Brinley initially sips on it gingerly but when he hears a man bragging about what he’d do to Governor Andros if he saw him in Newport, those sips quickly turn into large gulps. After making his way through a second flip, he begins cursing the men in the tavern under his breath. He’s grown tired of these loud mouth Rhode Islanders who think so highly of their radical society. Aside from the few royalists who support King James' absolute right to exert his will on the people, Brinley considers them nothing but a bunch of disloyal dissidents. While Brinley might be right when it comes to claiming that the Rhode Islanders are upset with their new government, he’s wrong to think they are anything but loyal to their King. They’re proud to be Englishmen and believe they’re part of the greatest nation in the world. In fact, it was King James II’s father, King Charles II, who protected the right of their radical society when he granted them a charter back in 1663. All they are simply asking, or as could be said for the drunk men in the tavern, crudely yelling about, is the right to remain loyal subjects without having the rights guaranteed in their charters taken away from them. Rhode Island, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, have cherished the fact that their charters allowed them to set up a society where leaders are democratically voted into power, thereby ensuring that the laws and taxes imposed on them is what’s truly best for them. But that’s no longer the case. Instead their colonies are now being led by Governor Andros, a man who was appointed into power by a King living 3,000 miles away. All of this illustrates how since the founding of their colonies several decades earlier, the colonists have started creating a shared identity, something that will eventually grow into an American identity. Don’t get me wrong, the orthodox Puritans in Massachusetts are by no means inviting the Rhode Island Baptists and Quakers over for dinner or anything and all of the colonists still consider themselves Englishmen before anything else but still it shows us even with this new identity only being in its infancy it’s already putting the colonists at odds with the British monarchy. But the colonists know they have to be careful about what they say about the King so they’ve decided to point their disapproving fingers at men like Governor Andros and Francis Brinley instead. This is a fact that Brinley, a man who during my short tirade happened to finish another drink, is all too familiar with. Eventually, William Mayes once again approaches Brinley’s table and asks if he’d like another flip but Brinley wisely declines. Instead he thanks Mayes for the beverages, pays his tab, and makes his way out of the tavern. As he steps outside, he decides that it’s probably best he gets some fresh air before heading home to Mrs. Brinley, so he begins taking an afternoon stroll through the city. While making his way north up Farewell street he passes the grave of his brother-in-law and former Rhode Island Governor, William Coddington. The final date on the tombstone reads “November 1 1678”. Realizing that Coddington’s been dead for almost a decade now, Brinley shakes his head while raising his eyebrows, the same look most of us have when we take a minute to appreciate just how quickly time passes us by. Then, he begins thinking about how it's also been a decade since the great war between the English colonists and the tribes of New England, a conflict known as King Philip’s War. He remembers Rhode Island colonists flooding down the very street he finds himself standing on today and the fear in their faces as they desperately looked to escape the fighting that had their colony in utter chaos. At times, it’s still hard for Brinley to believe that Rhode Island made it out of the war alive. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for their native opponents who were decimated by the war. And as is always true with war, the victors have been able to reap the benefits of coming out on top. For the past few years, Rhode Islanders have been moving onto land that was once ruled by the Narragansett Nation, land that is technically called King’s Province but is more commonly referred to as Narragansett Country. Narragansett Country is a massive stretch of land that makes up all of present day Washington County and the southern half of Kent County. Most of the tribal villages that were once seen throughout the region have been replaced by English towns. In the North is East Greenwich which spans from Narragansett Bay all the way west to Connecticut. Underneath East Greenwich, situated along the shores of Narragansett Bay is Kingstown, a town that will eventually be divided into North and South Kingstown in 1723. Then, in the southwest is a town rightly named Westerly. In a few decades, this area will be home to an extremely wealthy group of farmers whose seemingly endless plantations produce a set of goods and livestock that will be sold throughout the world. But as of 1687, this land is still only sparsely populated and as we journey into Narragansett Country we visit one of the region’s earliest English settlers, a man by the name of James Greene. Greene is the first Englishman to have built a home in an area that was once home to a Narragansett sub-tribe called the Potowomut. Greene and his family will stay on this land for generations and one of his descendants will end up playing a pivotal role in American history when he saves the American Revolution from being destroyed. But that’s a story for later on in Season 2, for now we visit James Greene on a warm summer day in 1687 at his newly built home in Potowomut. While visiting him, he teaches us a little bit more about the people who lived there long before him and about the group of newcomers who are now forced to deal with this unwanted government.

The Greene family has been living in Rhode Island since its inception decades earlier. John Greene, a man commonly known as Surgeon John, joined Roger Williams to Providence in 1637 and then helped Samuel Gorton create the town of Warwick soon after. His son, James Greene, continued the family’s exploratory mentality in 1684 when he became the first Englishmen to settle in Potowomut. And it’s in Potowomut where we visit James on a hot summer afternoon in 1687. While working at his forge that sits on the Potowomut River, Greene takes a minute to wipe the sweat dripping from his forehead. The already hot summer day has been made even worse by the heat coming from his forge. Next to James is his 13 year old son, Jabez jay-bez . While observing the land all around him , Jabez says to his father, “Father, I don’t get it”. “What’s that son?” James responds. “Why do we call this area Potowomut?” James knows that he’s explained this to his son before so he figures he just wants to hear about the Narragansett tribe again. “Well son, as we’ve discussed, long before we moved here another group of people, known as the Potowomut, lived on this land”, states Greene as he begins his story. He explains how the Potowomut tribe was part of the Narragansett Nation and how for many years, the Narragansetts and their great Sachems dominated trade throughout southern New England. Any tribe who dared to challenge the Narragansett nation faced the wrath of thousands of Narragansett warriors who were willing to die for their people. Unfortunately, as colonists continued to move to New England, the Narragansetts watched their way of life come under attack and their once vast empire begin to wither away. The Narragansetts tried to protect their way of life by teaming up with other tribes and going to war with the English colonists but the English were too strong. Not only did the Narragansetts and other Rhode Island tribes like the Pokanoket lose the war but they were almost destroyed completely. Those who managed to survive are now all living in southern Rhode Island under Ninigret II, Sachem of the Niantic tribe. When the story is finished, Greene and his son sit there quietly for a moment as they think about what this place must have looked like when the Narragansetts ruled the region. Eventually, Jabez, as inquisitive young minds sometimes do, changes the subject completely and begins asking about the controversies that have emerged with the Dominion of New England. Jabez asks, “Why is everyone all of a sudden so upset about paying taxes?” After taking a second to admire his son’s thoughtful question, Greene explains how these taxes are different as they were imposed on them by Governor Andros, a man they did not elect. “So why don’t you just not pay them?, Jabez asks. James chuckles and replies “Well son, it’s not quite that easy. These taxes are coming from men appointed by the King which means there are far more serious consequences for those who choose to disobey”. However, what James has decided not to tell his son is that some Rhode Islanders have chosen to do just that. Some have outright refused to pay taxes while some simply refused to elect tax collectors into power, allowing the men to claim that there’s nobody for them to pay their taxes to. As the conversation about the Dominion of New England continues, Jabez asks his father “was it also the Dominion that allowed those French people to steal land in East Greenwich?”. But Greene, deciding that he doesn't have time for another set of questions, tells his son that they’ll have to discuss that another day and the two head back to the forge. But Jabez’s question is an important one because the French people Jabez is talking about provide yet another example of how the Dominion has disrupted Rhode Island society. To better understand how this has happened, we’ll travel 4 ½ miles southwest into Narragansett Country so that we can visit the French at their village or as it could also be called their frenchtown. While there we meet a group of religious outcasts who have unfortunately found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

While Rhode Island typically welcomes religious outcasts with open arms, that's unfortunately not the case for the French protestants, also known as Huegonots, living in East Greenwich. But the hatred the Rhode Islanders have for their newest arrivals has nothing to do with their religious beliefs but instead everything to do with how they came about owning land in Narragansett territory. If you recall from Season 1, Rhode Island has spent the last several decades protecting Narragansett Territory from being stolen by their intrusive neighbors. You might also remember that one of the primary people attempting to steal this land was a group of Massachustts and Connecticut investors known collectively as the Atherton Company. They claimed that they owned all of the land in Narragansett Territory due to a dubious mortgage that the Narragansett Nation defaulted on back in 1662. Thankfully, Rhode Island has been able to refute the Atherton Company’s claim to this incredibly valuable plot of land via their 1663 charter as it states how that area is part of their colony. Unfortunately, since the Dominion of New England had their charter revoked, Rhode Island’s claim to the region is now severely weakened. Knowing this, the Atherton Company has decided to reassert their ownership of Narragansett Country by doing something one can only do with land if they own it, sell it. As you may have guessed, they sold it to the French protestants we are now discussing. Not all of it of course, just 4 square miles of it. But Either way, whether it’s 4 square miles or 50, the Rhode Islanders get what the Atherton Company is trying to do so They now see the Huguenots as intruders who have unfairly taken some of their land. Not only that but they are yet another reminder of how the Dominion has threatened the stability of their society. However, a deeper look at these so-called French intruders, allows one to see that they’re not so threatening after all. Instead, we simply see a group of foreigners simply trying to build a better life for themselves. The amount of progress they’ve made on their settlement that was purchased less than a year earlier speaks to their tireless work ethic. Their village, located where Camp Fogarty stands today, consists of over 25 houses and 48, 100-acre lots that have been evenly distributed amongst the families. In the southeastern section of their town are the meadow grounds that are shared amongst the different families. Running through their town are two roads, one that leads north to Boston and another that heads east to Narragansett Bay. Their first Spring harvest has proven to be a great success and On the surface, it looks as though things are going quite well for this industrious group of religious outcasts. Unfortunately, that’s not completely true as it's become abundantly clear that they are not wanted here. For the past few months they’ve been harassed by their English neighbors and at one point a group of men from Kingstown and East Greenwich trespassed on their land and stole 40 loads of hay from their meadow. They tried to stop the harassment by filing a complaint to Governor Andros but instantly realized that was a bad idea. Not only did Andros do little to help them but it made the Rhode Islanders even more upset. The last thing the people of East Greenwich want to see are these unwanted visitors making protests to a man who they so vehemently despise. Knowing that they need help, the Huguenots have decided to ask the Atherton Company to intervene, something the investors are happy to do. They firmly believe that by bringing these complaints to Governor Andros it will force him to once and for all decide who actually owns Narragansett Territory. And they have no doubt that Andros will side with them as they are respected members of New England society, not a bunch of religious dissidents who have proven to be such a nuisance to his regime. Therefore, the complaint is submitted and the Atherton Company waits for the good news that is bound to come their way. Meanwhile, the people of Rhode Island find themselves in a sense of panic as it looks as though they might lose this highly valuable tract of land. But to everyone’s surprise, Governor Andros sides with the Rhode Islanders, citing the fact that the Atherton Company’s mortgage was already declared null and void over by the English government 2 decades ago. As expected, the Massachusetts & Connecticut investors are furious so they decide to appeal the decision directly to King James II. As the slow wheels of government continue to spin over the next several months it actually begins to look as though their appeal will succeed, making them the new owners of Narragansett Territory. However, the Atherton Company’s once again find themselves sorely disappointed when monumental changes occur in England that bring their plan crashing down. It’s a change that will bring the Rhode Islanders an immense amount of joy while unfortunately leading to the downfall of the short lived frenchtown in East Greenwich.

It’s a Summer day in 1689 and a roaring crowd can be heard celebrating on the streets of Newport. Inside of the restaurant known today as the White Horse Tavern, William Mayes can be seen pouring cups of flip while shouts of Huzzah echo off of the tavern's wooden walls. After a bloodless revolution in England, King James has been overthrown and a new regime has been set up in his place. England's new joint monarchy, led by William and Mary, has decided to disband the Dominion of New England and Rhode Island has regained its status as its own colony. With its charter reinstated, its leaders have already begun putting their government back together and reimplementing their beloved democratic institutions. Unfortunately, this change isn’t beneficial to everyone as it proves to be devastating for the French community in East Greenwich. With the Atherton Company’s losing the ability to claim the land in Narragansett Territory as their own it means that the Huguenots land purchase invalid as well. For the next few years the people of East Greenwich and the surrounding towns continuously dispossess the Huguenots of their land until they are forced to abandon their settlement completely. Today the only remnant of the Frenchtown in East Greenwich is a road bearing that name. On the other hand, events in Newport do present a far more positive picture. As the celebrations persist, the people of Rhode Island are thrilled to know that the rights they so cherish are once again protected. The celebrations continue late into the night, showing that the people of Rhode Island are just as outspoken when celebrating as they are when protesting. And so, although the Dominion of New England existed for just a couple of years, it gives us a better understanding of how the people around Narragansett Bay are beginning to develop a shared identity with their fellow colonists. They’ve proven how the right of political representation is not only an integral part of their society but one that can unite them as well. And shortly after the collapse of the dominion, the right of political representation becomes a right that is no longer just granted to the colonists via their charters but one that is promised to all Englishmen. Towards the end of 1689, England’s newest monarchy creates the Bill of Rights, a document that promises all Englishmen the right of political representation. As the decade comes to an end, it begins to look as though the values of the British empire are becoming more aligned with the American colonists. But that won’t always be the case. The British empire will eventually violate that sacred right when they begin imposing taxes on the Amerians without allowing them to be represented throughout the process. When this happens, the Rhode Island colonists will respond with a set of protests that play a critical role in igniting a full blown rebellion. However, that won’t happen for another several decades and before the colonies can even dare to consider rebelling against their mother country they need to reach a level of strength that would give them a fighting chance of being successful. Luckily for them, they’re about to experience a rate of growth unlike anything anyone could’ve expected and one that will make even their smallest colony a key component of the international market economy. After pushing through a series of growing pains, Rhode Island will finally come into its own. It will no longer be seen as a place for the religious outcasts of the world but a colony where men can make fortunes. From the coastal towns of Narragansett Bay to the farmland of Narragansett territory, the Rhode Island economy is about to expand at an unprecedented rate. But that’s a story for next time on Season 2 Episode 2 of the Story of Rhode Island podcast.