Thanks to the efforts of Roger Williams and the Rev. John Clarke Rhode Island was the first secular state of its time. There was religious freedom and no effective control by Britain over the colony. In this environment a free running economy developed based on international trading. During the time before the Revolution Newport was one of the biggest ports on the eastern seaboard. The British shut the port down for three years during the Revolution but the town recovered thanks to the French who arrived in 1780 with money. The economy recovered but Newport was again depressed during the War of 1812. There was an industrial revolution in Rhode Island in the 19th century that started with Slater Mill which put the Providence based merchants in a position to compete effectively with the Newport merchants. Newport shifted to a tourist and manufacturing economy.

By the early decades of the eighteenth century, Rhode Island had developed a commercial economy with not one, but two centers. Urban Growth in Colonial Rhode Island is the tale of these two cities: Newport, fifth largest city in the colonies, and the much smaller Providence. This absorbing history of two interdependent cities in a restricted region shows how they developed, competed with each other, and eventually traded places as major and secondary economic centers within the region. The book has drawn upon the substantial body of local and regional history of colonial America. Unlike other studies, which concentrate on the social structure and family life of rural communities, Urban Growth in Colonial Rhode Island explores the relationship between economic development and social structure in an urban setting. The book concludes with a discussion of the impact of the Revolution on the two cities, and the ways in which the war, combined with general economic trends, transformed Providence into Rhode Island's major city.

Excerpt from Early Recollections of Newport, R. I: From the Year 1793 to 1811 Newport life, manners, and customs to the length which it might have reached, if I had chosen; because I felt that ample justice to my subject could be done within narrower limits, and that a less pretentious volume might attain a more extensive circulation, and so prove more useful to my native town, not merely now, but in years to come. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Guide to Newport: Rhode Island Newport, the Queen of Watering Places, the Social Capital of America, and one of the most beautiful spots on God's footstool, is also one of the oldest cities in this country, and one of the most interesting from an historical standpoint and from the number of its existing associations with the past. Newport is situated on the lower portion of the island of Rhode Island, called by the Indians, Aquidneck (The Isle of Peace). This island, about thirteen miles long and three wide, lying in Narragansett Bay, was the refuge to which, in 1637, a small band of Englishmen, headed by Dr. John Clark and William Coddington, fled from the colony of Massachusetts, in order to worship God according to their own belief. The island was bought from the Narragansett Indians, with the usual fairness of the white settlers, for a few garments and agricultural implements and two torkepes (whatever they may be); and the name changed to Rhode Island, perhaps a corrupt form of "red island," from the general reddish color of the rocks and soil, but more likely from a supposed similarity to the Isle of Rhodes, on account of the roses which grew (and still grow) in great beauty and abundance upon the shores. To Nicholas Easton must be given the credit for having had the far-sighted sagacity to select the site of Newport. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.