Life during the initial colonial period in Rhode Island, beginning with its founding in 1636 and lasting shall we say for a few decades, was more similar to life in Massachusetts’ English colonies than their southern neighbors, the Virginia plantation colonies. Yet there were many differences even between the almost sister colonies of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
During its first few decades, Rhode Island was much smaller and had fewer direct settlers than its larger neighbor, Massachusetts. Mainly Rhode Island’s small white communities consisted of immigrants from Massachusetts, who had found that colony’s stringent Puritan stance a bit stifling. Overall, the settlers were very religious, but often they were religious outcasts – Seekers, Quakers, Baptists, and Jews found safe harbor in the small, religiously tolerant villages Rhode Island boasted in its early years. Local government was somewhat different also, suffrage extended to every landowning man of age, regardless of his church creed. Roger Williams proposed that it is impossible to see into a man's heart, so what does it profit to insist that he convert with his lips before voting.
Material life was simple, no doubt, and relied heavily on trade with the native Narragansett Indians initially. Yet Rhode Island’s settlers were not the indulgent gentlemen of Virginia, nor were they the Purist-minded Anglicans of Massachusetts; the “red island’s” new residents proved more industrious than the Virginians and less prejudiced than the Massachusetts folk. Rhode Island villages (the first villages, that is) were fairly purchased from Indian friends, and were small in number. This alone helps account for some of the Wampanoag and Narragansett acceptance – small towns of only a dozen or so people were hardly a danger to native societies. These settlers might easily be incorporated into the Algonquian government of assimilating small “tribes” into a larger native realm. This seems to have been the case initially with Rhode Island, and Roger Williams himself was especially diligent to learn the Algonquian language, including several of its north-eastern dialects.
After Rhode Island continued in this almost isolated way for several decades – that is, Rhode Island almost sought to isolate itself from its unfriendly Massachusetts neighbor – yet after this rather isolated, mild, tolerant beginning, what to me is a shocking development arose: an almost sudden interest in the African Slave trade. In 1652 Rhode Island acquired its first African slaves, purchased from ships which passed that way usually on route as follows: from Europe, to Africa, to the Caribbean Islands, to New England, then either back to the islands or directly to Europe. Rhode Island turned out to be a key port involved in the trade, as it lies slightly south of Massachusetts and contained many entrepreneur-type settlers.
By 1661 (though not wholly do to the slave trade as it had not developed much yet) Rhode Island was beginning to be quite prosperous. Roger Williams and his band were no longer ruling the white roost politically it was more involved with Europe now. Yet it was still on working terms with the Indians, because of furs, fishing, whaling, etc.
One European traveler, a Swiss surgeon named Felix-Christian Spori, noted that in the early Massachusetts Bay and Narragansett Bay towns, Indian wampum was incorporated into the English settlers’ monetary system. So we can assume that the early days in Rhode Island were particularly friendly with the natives (whom Williams had always acknowledged to be the natural owners of the land) in so much that the two monetary systems were partially merged.
There are a number of interesting anecdotes referencing material life in this area recorded in Spori’s account, including a shocking tale of a forest snake which reportedly swallowed a whole deer. That same snake was suspected of eating several missing local sheep. Fish were also important to diet, especially (as one might guess) the plentiful cod, and also mackerel. So it would seem that early Rhode Island colonists heavily relied upon hunting and fishing, while at the same time often fearing yet-unfamiliar wild creatures!
Spori also remarks upon Indian canoes, which apparently he had never heard tell of previously as he described them in detail, from their long length which might seat 6 men, to their body made of bark. He also recounts an incident involving an Indian who stuck himself with a harpoon while hunting crab, “from hand to elbow”! Because of the barbs it could not be easily removed, but the Swiss man, being a surgeon, was able to remove it and saw the patient for check-up visits for 2 weeks.
There was “no scarcity of greens, fish, and game” in the area. Spori does mention that he could not find all of the medicinal plants he knew in England but the ones that were there were so populous they were shipped to England. Furs, timber, fish, and fish oil, tobacco, and other products were also being exported already. Horses and livestock had been transported there, and whaling had begun to be a prosperous business. With such plentiful timber, and imported livestock on the rise, Rhode Islanders typically lived in wooden houses, and had small gardens and a few animals to sustain its households, while still relying upon local fish and the like to supplement their diets and pocketbooks.
Spori calls Rhode Island “Read Island” as indeed it was called for awhile. His entire account is quite colorful, and if it is in fact true, it paints Rhode Island and the other bay colonies as relatively thriving fishing towns, whose business and livings were intertwined with the native Indian tribes. He does not mention the presence of African slaves, perhaps because he did not travel very far inland. One can only wonder how different America’s material history would be had the partnering with the Indians continued, instead of turning to the growing African slave trade – of which tiny Rhode Island was quickly becoming the head.
SOURCES:
Schemel, Emma. “A Swiss Surgeon Visits Rhode Island 1661-1662”. The New England Quarterly. Vol. 10, No. 3 (Sep., 1937), pp. 536-548. Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/360323.
Nice source! It's always interesting to see how outsiders see and describe places, and Spori gave some great details.
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