Take a journey with us back to early America, where Rhode Island's founders laid the groundwork for America's policy of religious freedom. Dr. Patrick T. Conley, Rhode Island's preeminent historian, is our guide for this expedition, teaching us about the individuals and events that shaped Rhode Island's identity. Learn what led Roger Williams to write The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution and discover how James Franklin, older brother of Benjamin, left a lasting impact on the future of American...

Picking up where Rhode Island's Founders left off Dr. Patrick T. Conley, Rhode Island's preeminent historian and president of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, takes us through the Ocean State's history from 1790 to 1860. Learn how Samuel Slater, the so-called Father of the Factor System, pioneered the making of modern Rhode Island, how Elizabeth Buffum Chace founded the Rhode Island Women's Suffrage Association and what political circumstances led Governor Thomas Wilson Dorr to the ...

In an era when immigration was at its peak, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route to southern New England. One of its most important ports was in Providence, Rhode Island. Nearly eighty-four thousand immigrants were admitted to the country between the years 1911 and 1934. Almost one in nine of these individuals elected to settle in Rhode Island after landing in Providence, amounting to around eleven thousand new residents. Most of these immigrants were from Portugal and Italy...

Rhode Island's contribution to World War II vastly exceeded its small size.Narragansett Bay was an armed camp dotted by army forts and navy facilities. They included the country's most important torpedo production and testing facilities at Newport and the Northeast's largest naval air station at Quonset Point. Three special, top-secret German POW camps were based in Narragansett and Jamestown. Meanwhile, Rhode Island workers from all over the state - including, for...

Years after the death of their rst born son Sean, his memory still occupies the minds and souls of his parents, Ted and Kate. Both parents struggle to make sense of what they feel may be a meaningless death in a meaningless war. They know that life goes on and that they still have two other children to love and nurture. What will be their fate? They are growing up in the Digital Age, where progress in bio-engineering and AI is making a world of new possibilities. Still, the old problems ex...

Pete and Mary find their humdrum life interrupted dramatically by a spirit from the past. All on the surface appears banal and excruciatingly normal, but this ordinary couple must grapple with questions that otherwise they would have conveniently and blithely ignored. The title suggests one of the key questions that Mary and Pete explore. How can an evening—a measure of time—co-exist with eternity? How does time—a measure of past, present and future co-exist with an everlasting now, an ete...

The two tales portray some of the problems facing many American families: bipolar bosses, unemployment, cancer, the seemingly unending hustle for money, and adolescent children coping with the meaning of the puzzling adult world. In ‘67 Ford Mustangs: The Long Drives, the unemployed protagonist undergoes three journeys, including a literal trip to Hell and back. As he scours the country for ‘67 Mustangs to satisfy the fancies of an eccentric collector, he unintentionally comes across an ep...

The two novellas in this collection both describe a world gone mad with a frenzied rush for profit and promotion, a world in which bureaucracy seemingly trumps all other considerations. The first novella, “So, This Is It,” finds its protagonist unable to find work anywhere except in the ever-expanding government bureaucracy. Reluctantly, he finds himself employed in the Office of the Word. Assigned to do the impossible, the protagonist struggles to find meaning in a world without a soul. T...

SYNOPSIS OF A CONVOCATION OF FIVE What is the value of an ordinary guy’s life and who assesses that value? As Tom Albright approaches the end of his days on earth, five individuals meet to evaluate his life. They begin with hearing and commenting on a baby boomer who grew up with illusions of battlefield glory only to lose those illusions during the turbulence of the 60’s. Likewise, Tom immersed himself in idealized visions of athletic glory, academic success, racial harmony, romantic love...

Adam Albright had spent his entire life winning, or so he thought. He excelled in school, won recognition as an athlete, and basked in the sunshine of popularity, especially among women. He had succeeded as a lawyer and even more so as a lobbyist. All was going well in the popular estimation. However, a select few recognized that all his success lacked something, a soul perhaps or at least some concern for someone other than himself. Soon his world collapsed. His supposed seductions were r...

BUFFY’S BURRITOS “Illegal immigration,” “undocumented workers”—Mike Leahy and many Americans have heard these terms every day, but for Mike, these phrases have existed mainly as vague abstractions. A chance meeting with an old high school classmate initiates a whole series of events that propel Mike past the nebulous world of abstraction into the very real and enigmatic world of undocumented workers—a world in which both businesses and governmental agencies can profit, a world in which the...

The Providence River begins its journey from the confluence of the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers, in the capital city from which the river takes its name. A short distance downstream, the Seekonk River joins with the Providence as they flow on toward the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The history of the Ocean State was made on the banks of this historic river. It was here that Roger Williams established the first settlement dedicated to religious liberty, Rochambeau's army made its fir...