Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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Northward the western line followed the winding Pawcatuck River, and ran straight

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

from the head of the Pawcatuck River to the southern boundary of Massachusetts. The genius of the geographer appears in this: That very little water and that only the drainage of the small strip of the extreme western territory of Rhode Island which is tributary to the Moosup River flows out of Rhode Island into any other state. The watersheds drained by the Pawtuxet, Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers lie wholly in Rhode Island ; vastly most of the drainage areas of the Pawcatuck and Blackstone Rivers are also in Rhode Island, while other rivers flow in from the east and northeast after drawing water from Mas- sachusetts. For strategic and military purposes Rhode Island thus controlled the hills and contours along the line that divided waterflow, and the western line for fortification in war- time, including the field on which would be fought the battle for Providence in modern times, and the hills that command the modern metropolitan city as it stretches under various names almost without break from Woonsocket to East Greenwich and Fall River. To a certain extent the Charter confirmed the boundaries of land purchased from the Indians. The west- ern boundary was located just beyond the headlands separating the watersheds drained by Rhode Island and Connecticut rivers. It probably is not true that the seventeenth century geographer who laid out the boundaries of Rhode Island foresaw the age of industrial devel- opment and of machinery in which water and waterfalls would be harnessed to turn the wheels of factories and do the heavy work of civilized man; nevertheless, he did understand thoroughly the significance of Narragansett Bay and of the geographical factors that made it the finest harbor in New England, if not upon the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, and that made it the prize to which Dutch, English and French looked with envious eyes and for which four seventeenth century colonies of English origin, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut, contended. Neither Connecticut nor Massachusetts was better satisfied with the western boundary than Plymouth was with the eastern boundary. The economic interest in all the New England colonies is a factor scarcely developed by historians, so much has history, as written in the past, exploited religious controversy rather than the keen astuteness in business of the men who controlled or represented the English commercial corporations that were promoting colonization in the seventeenth century. While Roger Williams probably was a dreamer who cared little for his own fortune, and who sometimes neglected his family in his willingness to sacrifice himself and them for the common good, John Clarke, who remained in England to complete negotiations for the Charter of 1663, united a splendid nobility of character and idealism with a positive genius for practical affairs. He was the one man in England at the time the King Charles Charter was written who understood Rhode Island.

Of estuaries along the Atlantic coast of the United States, none except Casco Bay in Maine has water deeper than that of Narragansett Bay; yet the harbor at Portland, the city nearest to Casco Bay, is not so deep as Narragansett Bay. Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are approximately of the same depth as Narragansett Bay; while Massachusetts Bay, Buzzards Bay, Penobscot Bay, Cape Cod Bay and Vineyard Sound are not so deep. Boston, New York city and New London are reached through waters shallower than are those of Narragansett Bay. The approach to New London is not directly from the Atlantic Ocean; and the entrance to New York, whether by Sound and East River or by Sandy Hook and Staten Island is beset with difficulties.

Narragansett Bay is one of few harbors into which a vessel may steer directly from the Atlantic Ocean, without serious hazard, in water uniformly more than sixty feet deep, and for the most part more than 100 feet deep. Moreover, it has an advantage over most North American harbors of opening directly to the south, and thus affording shelter within the headlands from the prevailing northerly winds and heavy northeasterly gales that are char- acteristic of winter weather on the North Atlantic Ocean. The portal opens widely between Point Judith and Seaconnet Point; within the headlands, the Islands of Conanicut and

WHY RHODE ISLAND?

Rhode Island partly stop the gaping mouth, but leave open two entrances easily accessible on either side of Conanicut. Beaver Tail, at the southern extremity of Conanicut, marks the division between East Passage and West Passage; here in 1749-50 a lighthouse was erected, the oldest on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Much earlier, in 1690 certainly, per- haps in 1667, a watch tower and beacon light were maintained at Beaver Tail to warn the people of the colony of the approach of hostile fleets engaged in colonial wars. Within the waters of the bay are two outer closed harbors, one at Newport, and one between Dutch Island and Conanicut, besides the splendid open waterway almost eight miles long directly east of Conanicut. Dutch Island Harbor has been for almost three centuries a favorite anchoring place for vessels seeking refuge from heavy storms. Dutch Island takes its name from the Dutch traders from New Amsterdam (later New York), whose activity in Narra- gansett Bay so early as 1640 was one reason that induced Roger Williams to visit England for the purpose of obtaining a charter for his colony that would give it legal standing should controversy with the Dutch suggest an appeal to the mother country on behalf of Providence Plantations.

In protected waters in the lower reaches of the bay is anchorage without crowding for the modern navy of a great nation. Verrazzano considered Narragansett Bay sufficient to float the navies of the world in the sixteenth century. Further up the bay are wide reaches of deep and usually quiet water, giving access to other closed harbors in Mount Hope Bay and at Bristol, the harbor chosen by Plymouth; and still further north the approach to Provi- dence through a deep and wide channel easily maintained by occasional dredging. The north- ern extension of Narragansett Bay, Providence River and Seekonk River reaches thirty-five miles inland from the ocean, and constitutes what has been called happily and proudly the "Gateway to New England." Before the Revolutionary War Newport was the port of Narra- gansett Bay ; its commerce exceeded that of any other harbor in North America. The French acquaintance with Narragansett Bay, renewed during the Revolutionary War, suggested a request for the cession by the United States to France of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island as a token of American gratitude, in payment of the debt of the United States to France, and as a naval base to be held by France in anticipation of other wars with England. This, with- out doubt, was one reason, somewhat neglected by historians, which was weighty in deter- mining Rhode Island's distrust of the Congress of the Confederation after the war, and which suggested careful consideration before Rhode Island made the Constitution of the United States constitutional by ratifying it. Narragansett Bay was the most precious possession of Rhode Island in the early centuries ; it is in the twentieth century.

An estuary affording safe anchorage for large fleets and yielding annually a wealth of shellfish, including oysters, clams, quahaugs, scallops, mussels, crabs and lobsters, with the possibility suggested that a revival of a rich vertebrate food and fertilizer fishery, well known to Indians and colonists, awaits only the perfection of devices for filtering sewage and the purification of waste water, is an asset to be cherished. The value of these resources was recognized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as were also the commercial advan- tages that accrue from deep channels running close to shore and affording opportunity for the construction of wharves at minimum cost, alongside of which vessels might lie to dis- charge or take on cargoes without the inconvenience and expense involved in the building and using of piers and slips. So fine a waterway as Narragansett Bay might be wasted commercially, nevertheless, if its location were not advantageous externally as well as inter- nally. Beaver Tail, dividing East Passage from West Passage, lies in latitude 41° 27' north and longitude 71° 24' west. Directly east by great circle sailing lie northern Spain and Portu- gal, Oporto being almost due east of Narragansett Bay. Because of the long eastern projec- tion of New England, Narragansett Bay is more than 100 miles nearer than is New York to Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Liverpool. Marseilles and other southern European ports

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

on the Mediterranean Sea, as well as Constantinople, and Port Said at the western entrance to the Suez Canal, are all nearer to Narragansett Bay than to New York. With respect to European ports, New York is nearer than Philadelphia, Baltimore and Charleston, which emphasizes the advantage of Narragansett Bay.

The Bermuda Islands are located almost due east from Charleston, South Carolina, and almost due south of Narragansett Bay; the sailing distances from the Bermudas to American ports are: Narragansett Bay, 631 miles; New York, 681 miles; Boston, 688 miles; Phila- delphia, 730 miles ; Charleston, 787 miles. Rhode Island is almost directly north of the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti, thus having convenient approach to the Panama Canal, Caribbean Sea ports, and ports along the northeast coast of South America. The continent of South America lies so far east, relative to the continent of North America, that vessels following great circle courses, which correspond to straight lines on plane surfaces, may travel almost directly south from New England, and particularly Narragansett Bay, to South America, whereas vessels from other harbors must lay courses sharply diagonal to meridians. Porta, Peru, one of the most western cities of South America, is almost directly south of Key West, Florida. Cartagena, Colombia, near the western edge of the north coast, is almost directly due south from Philadelphia. A line drawn through Trinidad Island passes east of Halifax and west of ports in Brazil, Uruguay, the Guianas, and the city of Buenos Ayres, Argentina. Narragansett Bay is nearer to Trinidad than Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans and New York. With respect to Cartagena, Narragansett Bay is 138 miles nearer than Boston, and somewhat less than fifty to seventy-five miles farther than New York or Philadelphia.

Most of South America lies east of the Panama Canal. Most South American Pacific ports lie almost directly south from Narragansett Bay. The building of the Panama Canal has emphasized the advantage of the Atlantic over the Pacific ports of the United States. Because of the long northwestern slope of the coast of Central America and Mexico away from the Panama Canal, San Francisco, which is located a little south of due west from Narragansett Bay is 1183 miles further from the canal than is Narragansett Bay. The sail- ing distances to the Panama Canal are; Narragansett Bay, 2062 miles; San Francisco, 3245 miles. The advantage for Narragansett Bay is approximately the distance from Narragansett Bay to Key West, Florida. The advantage over San Francisco is maintained for all South American ports on the Pacific; thus, the sailing distance from Narragansett Bay to Val- paraiso, Chile, is 4678 miles, while San Francisco lies 5407 miles to the northwest, a variation of 700 miles. On coast to coast shipments, the long water route of 5300 miles from San Francisco via the Panama Canal to Narragansett Bay, is so much shorter in time and so much cheaper in freight rate than the overland haul across the continent that a profitable and growing interoceanic commerce has developed. Narragansett Bay has become a favorite eastern port for landing and distributing as well as for gathering and shipping cargoes for this trade.

Quite contrary to the modern teaching that waterways tend to promote communication by furnishing facilities for comfortable travel, Narragansett Bay has sometimes been dis- cussed as an obstacle to close union among the early settlers. Thus President Gammell of the Rhode Island Historical Society, in 1885, wrote: "With the waters of the bay stretching between them, sometimes boisterous, sometimes frozen, and always dangerous, how were they to be brought together in this infancy of their existence? We little appreciate, or even imagine, how formidable was the barrier thus interposed in those early days. The passage from the plantations of Aquidneck to those of Providence, even in the most favorable cir- cumstances, required a long day of hard rowing in Indian canoes or in the rude boats which the settlers soon began to build for themselves." The same author cites the instructions given by the town meeting of Providence to the town's delegates to the first meeting of the

WHY RHODE ISLAND?

General Assembly, at Portsmouth, in May, 1647, ending "We commit you unto the protec- tion and direction of the Almighty, wishing you a comfortable voyage, a happy success and a safe return unto us," as confirming his opinion. These words may well tend to refute the contention that Providence Plantations, for want of an established church, had become a resort for ungodly outcasts of decent society, and may well be attributed to the fine spirit of piety and hope that had inspired the naming of the settlement begun by Roger Williams on the bank of the Moshassuck in 1636 as Providence in recognition of the Providence of God ; but no one who contrasts the ease of travel by canoe or boat with the hardship of overland travel through the wilderness need be misled. The comparative ease of communication by water between set- tlements made possible in Rhode Island the development of pronounced individualism in settlements that otherwise were isolated unto themselves, and tended to preserve a democracy founded on a recognition of the rights of the citizen at a time in which the combination of church and state in other colonies was centralizing and concentrating authority, fashioning a theocracy modelled upon Old Testament precedents, and forging fetters for those who with- out interference and constraint might have become tolerant and liberal-minded. As a matter of fact, the waters of the bay furnished the finest possible means of communication and intercourse between settlements if and when either was desired, and an equally convenient separation if and when that was preferable. And, besides that, they furnished the environ- mental conditions needed to train a race of hardy, adventurous sailors and daring sea cap- tains, ardent lovers of freedom, who carried the Flag to every port in the seven seas, and who played their part in commerce and in war with honor and glory to themselves and to their state.

Geological studies of Rhode Island indicate how kindly the Creator has treated the Narragansett Bay country, and how carefully the terrain of little state and mighty common- wealth had been prepared for a people chosen to demonstrate the eternal verity of democracy. Post-glacial Rhode Island differed radically from Rhode Island of the period preceding the coming and going of the ice cap that sometime covered most of the United States. Here the scratched and grooved, partly evened face of outcropping ledge indicates the course of slid- ing glaciers, moving ponderously toward the sea; and there a tremendous boulder rounded and smoothed in the course of a long journey from the ledge from which it was torn away stands where the glacier dropped it, mute evidence of the enormous forces working through the ice age. Deep pond or lake, sandy plain and rolling hill, and rock-strewn field-all help the geologist to read and write a story that is as fascinating as any other page of history.

The glaciers cut deep ravines, smoothed plains, piled up sand hills by holding back eddy- ing water until it had dropped the silt snatched in some wildly rushing freshet, and by building lateral and terminal moraine changed the courses of rivers, turning them away from old and into new beds as they flowed on inevitably and forever toward the ocean. In Washington County a terminal moraine turned several rivers, that otherwise flowed probably southerly into the Atlantic Ocean, westward into the valley of the Pawcatuck River, thus increasing the volume of the stream and the strength of the current. The rocky falls in the Pawcatuck and its feeders are also somewhat products of the ice age, have increased the commercial possibilities of this stream, and have transformed what otherwise might have been a quiet agricultural community into a thriving industrial centre. Few Rhode Island rivers "flow gently" as "Sweet Afton."

There is reason for believing that the course of the Pawtuxet River was changed during the glacial age, and that its earlier outlet to Narragansett Bay at Apponaug was abandoned for a wild and turbulent rush, through rocky gorges in some places, toward the present outlet six miles farther north. The Woonasquatucket River, and both north and south branches of the Pawtuxet River show interesting geological phenomena, most of which involved the development of water power and predetermined the nineteenth century industrial exploita-

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

tion of these valleys. The size and depth of the Moshassuck Valley and the river bed are out of proportion to the present volume of water, and suggest that some time the Black- stone River flowed almost directly south through the Moshassuck Valley into Narragansett Bay. Held back in the glacial period by an obstruction near Scott's Pond, the Blackstone River turned eastward and cut a new bed for itself, piling up rocky barriers of dropping boulders, and tumbling riotously down over precipitous slopes at Lonsdale Falls, Valley Falls, Central Falls and Pawtucket Falls. Man came and found that nature had prepared the way for his dams and sluices, for further control of the water.

Past Pawtucket Falls the Blackstone River found a natural outlet through what may have been the ancient bed of Abbott's Run extended or the Ten Mile River, although in the latter instance the geological formation indicates the possibility. that the river flowed not into the present valley of the Seekonk, but into the Runnin's River, and thence by Barrington and Warren Rivers into the Bay. The new course of the Blackstone River predetermined the site for what is perhaps the most intensive industrial development in the world. The con- struction of the Blackstone Canal scarcely would have been feasible in view of established mill and factory water rights in the lower Blackstone River, if the Moshassuck Valley had not provided an approach to the upper Blackstone River near Lonsdale, above the major water falls. As it was, the statute incorporating the Blackstone Canal Company and author- izing the construction of the canal required the proprietors to pump back into the Blackstone River, within every twenty-four hours, water in volume equal to that drawn out from above to fill the series of locks required to mount the elevation between the watersheds.

These are only surface indications; to account for the disappearance of water from ponds having no surface outlets, and for the constant level of water in ponds having no sur- face feeders, and for the vast quantities of water that may be drawn from artesian wells that do not pierce the igneous and carboniferous rocky strata, the geologist weaves a tale of water seeping through loose formations into beds of ancient rivers and streams, and flowing on below the soil ever toward the ocean. The story indicates the devious and almost incom- prehensible ways in which the physical environment may be constructed and modified, and suggests the Providence of God working wonders in New England in the environment as well as in the souls of men.

CHAPTER II. EARLY VISITORS TO RHODE ISLAND.

HE answer to the school teacher's question, "By whom was America discovered?" resolved into a conventional sentence beginning with the name of a celebrated fifteenth century Genoese navigator some time engaged in the service of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and long associated with the year-date in history best known and best beloved by American schoolboys, is still sufficient unto itself. Another answer to the question is somewhat irrelevant to the real purpose of the dialogue, to wit, to establish an episode that was a fact of transcendental importance. That "Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492" is significant because the discov- ery and date mark the beginning of a migration of Europeans westward across the Atlantic Ocean that has continued for more than four centuries, with all the consequences thereof in the winning of two. continents for civilization and in the transformation of human society through democracy, in America first and later in Europe. The school boy's answer very prop- erly ignores legendary earlier visits by Europeans to lands lying far to the west beyond the ocean, beginning so early as 565 with the Irish Saint Brendan.

Relating to Rhode Island more particularly, perhaps, the most significant of legendary pre-Columbian visits to America are recorded in the Icelandic sagas of the Northmen, wild sea rovers who harried and pillaged sections of Europe that correspond with modern France and the British Isles, beginning about the middle of the ninth century. Three half-centuries later, some of the Northmen had settled down permanently in various parts of Europe, one band going so far south as Italy in 1015. Meanwhile others had established themselves in France and the British Isles. Iceland had been colonized by Northmen, probably from Ire- land or England, in the tenth century, and Greenland had been visited from Iceland. There is a close resemblance to be found in the legend of a discovery of America originating in Ireland and that recited in the sagas. Ari Marson, sailing from Limerick and the River Shan- non in Ireland, reached White Man's Land or Greater Ireland, believed to have been part of the continent of North America between South Carolina and Florida, in 982. In succession to Ari Marson other successful voyages to the western land were made by Bjarni Asbranson, 999, and Gudlief Gudlangson, 1029. The similarity of this legend to the tale in the sagas appears in the chronology, which is close enough to suggest identity; in the names of the discoverers, Bjarni and Lief; and in the name Kialarnes (was it Killarney?) applied by one of the Icelandic Northmen navigators to a place in the western land; and is not more, nor · scarcely less, marked than that which is perpetually revealed in folklore and traditions com- mon to peoples having a common origin. The Northmen of history were not Scandinavians exclusively, nor are their modern descendants to be found only in Scandinavian countries in Europe, or among Americans of Scandinavian ancestry. Evidence of Northman and Dane in Ireland is found among Erin's blue-eyed blond sons, who mingle with the brown-eyed brunettes of more ancient Irish lineage in such number as to suggest a question as to which of the two is the truer type of Irishman.

THE STORY OF THE NORSEMEN-The sagas, like the Homeric poems, were preserved for centuries in the form of oral narratives told by wandering entertainers; in written form they go back only to the twelfth century. As the Homeric poems unquestionably were amplified in the telling, wherefore it is difficult to winnow from them the facts and episodes of history in their setting of heroic epic verse, so the sagas are to be interpreted with the caution that

RHODE ISLAND -- THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

from one to two centuries of story telling had intervened between the discovery of America alleged to have occurred as the tenth century rolled into the eleventh century, and the time in which an Icelandic scribe reduced the narratives to writing. The sagas have not the value for history that attaches to writing that is so closely related in time to events as almost to be part of the res gestae. This is the story of the discovery of America as told in the Icelandic sagas: Crossing from Iceland to Greenland in 986, Bjarni Herjulfson was driven far to the south by adverse storms, and sighted land until that time not known to the Northmen. Five years later, Lief Erickson and thirty-four companions sailed for the southwestern land on the same vessel that had been used by Bjarni Herjulfson, and discovered and named Hellu- land, Markland and Vinland, as they journeyed southward, probably in daytime coastwise trips from headland and harbor to headland and harbor. Vinland received its name because of the abundance of wild grapes. In or near Vinland Lief and his comrades passed a winter so mild that their descriptions of it and their tales of the abundance of grapes, wild grain (probably Indian corn), and fish and game in stream and forest, induced others to follow in what gave promise of becoming permanent colonization. The winter quarters of Lief, houses of stone known as Liefsbooths, were occupied by successive voyagers. Thorwald Erickson, Lief's brother, spent one or two winters at Liefsbooths in Vinland in 1002 or 1003. His party returned to Greenland after Thorwald had been killed by Indians in 1003 and buried at Krossness. In 1007 Thorfinn Karlsefin, with three ships, 160 men and seven women, including Thorfinn's wife, Gudrid, sailed for Vinland. Liefsbooths not having been found, the first winter was passed amid severe hardship. A son, called Snorri, was born to Thorfinn and Gudrid. Found eventually, Liefsbooths were occupied, and other houses were built. The cattle carried on this voyage indicate a purpose of permanent settlement; the party spent several years at Liefsbooths, until the hostility of aboriginal natives caused an abandonment of the project and return to Greenland.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716