Rhode Island History

All for the Union: The Civil War Diary & Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes

By Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Vintage
Released: 1992-07-28
Paperback (272 pages)

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All for the Union is the eloquent and moving diary of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, who enlisted into the Union Army as a private in 1861 and left it four years later as a 23-year-old lieutenant colonel after fighting hard and honorably in battles from Bull Run to Appomattox. Anyone who heard these diaries excerpted on the PBS-TV series The Civil War will recognize his accounts of those campaigns, which remain outstanding for their clarity and detail. Most of all, Rhodes's words reveal the motivation of a common Yankee foot soldier, an otherwise ordinary young man who endured the rigors of combat and exhausting marches, short rations, fear, and homesickness for a salary of $13 a month and the satisfaction of giving "all for the union."

Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell

By Elaine Forman Crane

Cornell University Press
Hardcover (248 pages)

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"It was Rebecca's son, Thomas, who first realized the victim's identity. His eyes were drawn to the victim's head, and aided by the flickering light of a candle, he 'clapt his hands and cryed out, Oh Lord, it is my mother.' James Moills, a servant of Cornell . . . described Rebecca 'lying on the floore, with fire about Her, from her Lower parts neare to the Armepits.' He recognized her only 'by her shoes.'"-from Killed Strangely

On a winter's evening in 1673, tragedy descended on the respectable Rhode Island household of Thomas Cornell. His 73-year-old mother, Rebecca, was found close to her bedroom's large fireplace, dead and badly burned. The legal owner of the Cornells' hundred acres along Narragansett Bay, Rebecca shared her home with Thomas and his family, a servant, and a lodger. A coroner's panel initially declared her death "an Unhappie Accident," but before summer arrived, a dark web of events-rumors of domestic abuse, allusions to witchcraft, even the testimony of Rebecca's ghost through her brother-resulted in Thomas's trial for matricide. Such were the ambiguities of the case that others would be tried for the murder as well.

Rebecca is a direct ancestor of Cornell University's founder, Ezra Cornell. Elaine Forman Crane tells the compelling story of Rebecca's death and its aftermath, vividly depicting the world in which she lived. That world included a legal system where jurors were expected to be familiar with the defendant and case before the trial even began. Rebecca's strange death was an event of cataclysmic proportions, affecting not only her own community, but neighboring towns as well.

The documents from Thomas's trial provide a rare glimpse into seventeenth- century life. Crane writes, "Instead of the harmony and respect that sermon literature, laws, and a hierarchical/patriarchal society attempted to impose, evidence illustrates filial insolence, generational conflict, disrespect toward the elderly, power plays between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, [and] adult dependence on (and resentment of) aging parents who clung to purse strings." Yet even at a distance of more than three hundred years, Rebecca Cornell's story is poignantly familiar. Her complaints of domestic abuse, Crane says, went largely unheeded by friends and neighbors until, at last, their complacency was shattered by her terrible death.

Mill

By David Macaulay

Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
Paperback (128 pages; 1)

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Amazon.com:
In Mill, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, David Macaulay pays tribute to the historically important mills of 19th-century New England. Using close-up pen-and-ink illustrations, Macaulay thoroughly explains the Yankee ingenuity that went into the elaborate process of running machines that were generated by the flow of water. In the case of this cotton mill in the imaginary town of Wicksbridge, Macaulay also demonstrates how important the mill was to a community's economic and social viability. In one scene, he shows the men and women celebrating the framing of the mill with a festive, barn-raising-style party. Macaulay tracks the mill's history, expertly explaining how all its new fixtures and materials reflect the political and industrial changes in the country. For example, in 1852 the owner sides with his abolitionist wife and shuns the use of "Negro cloth," inexpensive cloth made from slave-picked cotton. Instead he decides to start producing multi-colored, finer fabrics--a decision that leads to the expansion of the mill and the introduction of the steam engine. This is a finely woven offering, filled with technical intricacies and intriguing historical details. But ultimately, Macaulay's Mill is generated by the human story that led to the building of New England's cotton mills--as well as their eventual demise. (Ages 9 and older) --Gail Hudson

R is for Rhode Island Red: A Rhode Island Alphabet Edition 1. (Discover America State By State. Alphabet Series)

By Mark R. Allio

Sleeping Bear Press
Hardcover (40 pages; 1)

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Illustrated by Mary Jane Begin

Our alphabet journey takes us next to the charming state of Rhode Island in R is for Rhode Island Red: A Rhode Island Alphabet. It may be our smallest state but its presence is unmistakable -- rich in history, breathtaking beauty, and famous for its neighborhoods filled with character.

With every turned page readers will be treated to Rhode Island's incredible scenery and have their many questions answered about our thirteenth state. Rhode Island has how many miles of coastline? The breathtaking beauty of Block Island is one of the state's how many islands? Readers will also learn how Rhode Island native Samuel Slater started the American Industrial Revolution, and what the quahog is.

Rhode Island Red is Mark R. Allio's first children's book. He lives in Barrington, Rhode Island.

Award winning illustrator Mary Jane Begin has illustrated many children's books. She lives in Barrington, Rhode Island with her husband Mark Allio.

The 1938 Hurricane Along New England's Coast (Images of America)

By Joseph P. Soares

Arcadia Publishing
Released: 2008-04-14
Paperback (128 pages)

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The Hurricane of 1938 was one of the most devastating storms to strike New England?s Atlantic coast. It forever changed the landscapes of cities and towns in its path. Throughout the hurricane, the Coast Guard worked tirelessly to provide aid to countless displaced residents. Entire communities were leveled by the hurricane?s powerful winds and waves. After the storm subsided and the destruction was evident, the enormous task of rebuilding began. The historic images in The 1938 Hurricane along New England?s Coast document the hurricane?s destruction and the ways in which victims who were uprooted by the storm united to rebuild their communities.

The Vindication of Tradition: The 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities

By Jaroslav Pelikan

Yale University Press
Paperback (94 pages)

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In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities

By Patricia Foxen Vanderbilt University Press Paperback (376 pages)	List Price: $34.95 Lowest New Price: $31.45 Lowest Used Price: $37.84 Usually ships in 1 to 2 weeks (As of 10:53 Pacific 6 Sep 2008 More Info) Click Here
Product Description: Traveling back and forth between the Guatemalan highlands and Providence, Rhode Island, the author followed the migration paths of a community of K'iche' Indians, often acting as a courier to bring news and photographs to families. As several said to the author, "Now you have lived with your own skin what we have gone through, only you can leave at any time."

Trolley Wars: Streetcar Workers on the Line (Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies)

By Scott Molloy

New Hampshire
Paperback (264 pages)

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American cities' rapid expansion after the Civil War fueled the growth of organized transportation systems-- omnibuses, horsecar, and, later, electric streetcars. Trolley Wars traces the social dynamics of these first mass-transportation systems as they developed in Rhode Island, the most urbanized state in Gilded Age America. Covering years of rapid growth, Scott Molloy focuses on the laborers who operated the transit system, the changing ownership of the streetcar lines, and the strong bond that grew between trolley crews and passengers--a bond that sustained a powerful political alliance during the bitter "car wars" of 1902.

In lucid prose based on scrupulous research, Molloy dissects the car wars and expertly knits them into the larger pattern of labor unrest and urban malaise gripping turn-of-the-century America. Originally published in 1996, the classic Trolley Wars is now made available for the first time in paperback to readers, students, and scholars of labor history, with a new Author's Note.

Herreshoff Sailboats

By Greg Jones

MBI
Hardcover (160 pages)

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Greg Jones. Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in Bristol, Rhode Island, produced the most technically advanced, popular, and prominent boats of their day. Today, Herreshoff boats are recognized as the most historically significant boats of their time, and command some of the highest prices. Herreshoff Sailboats covers some of the major classes of Herreshoff boats including schooners, yawls, ketches, sloops, Q, R-, nad J- class yachts, and lanches. The story begins with John and Charles Herreshoff who founded the boatyard in 1832. The sale of Herreshoff to the Haeffner Corp. in the 1920s is also profiled. The epilogue explains the company's decision not to build fiberglass boats, and close its doors. Vintage black and whilte photos will tell the story, and modern color photography will show Herreshoff's role in yachting today.

Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution

By Charles Rappleye Simon & Schuster Paperback (416 pages)	List Price: $16.95 Lowest New Price: $3.22 Lowest Used Price: $2.26 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:53 Pacific 6 Sep 2008 More Info) Click Here
Product Description: Sons of Providence paints a vivid portrait of Colonial life as we follow these founding brothers in their rise to the heights of American commerce and power and from revolution to nationhood.