RHODE ISLAND HISTORY - Rhode Island Historical Society

42 SAMUEL HOPKINSJ j l " •.( . ,.IN , r_' r. /,'/10/11' / v).-'IJ /1'/ II /"INItIHSu...-,.Th.. _~.. olN ..wpon. I ns. M encr. VUl~ fromGrntl~ '. M;l C'anne. HopkiN saw 'M 8m." ocrtIpafion a God'. purtiUtrnrnr forNrwpon' inwol....mrnl in 1M slo .... uade'poverty." Dur ing the war mor e than half of Newpert'spopul ation had fled to safety into thecountryside. Only a few had returned. Hopkins reponedto Stiles, beca use most feared the Britishmight sa il into pon egatn."While the F irst Congregational Church and thecity of Newpo n attempted to recover from the effectsof the war in the early 1780s. the Revolutionaryantislavery movement began to realizemodest but concrete results. Even before thewar's official end in 1783. Newpon and otherRhode Island merchants had resumed their involvementin the sla ve trade. In December of thatyear many of the state's Quakers, unde r the leadership of Providence's Moses Brown, petit ionedthe Genera l Assemb ly to abolish slavery and toprohibit Rhod e Isla nders from trafficking inslaves. Responding to this plea, a committ ee ofde puties designed a bill requiring the manumissionof all slaves born after March 1, 1784, and recommendingthat they be Christianized anded ucated. The proposed legislation also providedfor the gradual emancipation of many blac ks whowere then enslaved. Males were to be freed attwenty-one and females at eighteen. Masters whofreed sla ves at a younger age were required toprevent them from becoming public charges. Thebill reasse rt ed the 1774 Congressional resolutionpro hib iti n g the slave trade and stipulated thatowne rs of all Rhod e Island vessels sailing for Africapos t a bond o f one thousand pounds as a guaranteeagainst their involvement in the evil