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NOTE 6. The Narragansett Planters

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Volume 2, Chapter 6, The Narragansett Planters

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Another important inter-colonial conflict over land and territory, and of long-standing,

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was the Connecticut-Road Island struggle over the Narragansett country in what is now southwestern

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Rhode Island.

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The controversy was resolved at last in 1726 when the Crown settled the territory in favor

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The detailed line was finally drawn two years later.

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By that time, however, the Atherton Company and ensuing land titles had been entrenched

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and confirmed, and the land pattern of the Narragansett country had become considerably

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different from the rest of New England.

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Instead of compact towns, the Narragansett country consisted of large plantations, differing

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from those in the South only in the commodities grown, berries, sheep, and horses, rather

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than tobacco and rice. And like Southern plantations, these large farms were maintained and worked

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only by extensive Negro and Indian slavery. In the major Narragansett township of South

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Kingston, the population in 1730 included 965 whites, 330 men and women.

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23 Negroes and 223 Indians, the last two groups almost all slaves. Two, a proportion of the

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whites were indentured servants. The proportion of nearly one-half of the citizens as outright

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slaves was matched only in the southern colonies. Along with the heavy proportion of slaves

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came a rigorous slave code. Gone with the days of Samuel Gorton's attempt to outlaw

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Law of Slavery in Rhode Island. Laws were now imposed prohibiting any Negro, free or

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slave, from being out of doors after 9 p.m. on penalty of 15 lashes. No household could

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allow any servant or slave to dance or gamble, and no ferryman could transport a Negro without

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an authorized certificate from a master or from the courts. In addition, South Kingston

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New England itself prohibited any free negro from having a slave at his house and in 1726

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barred any outdoor social gatherings of Indians or negroes. Furthermore, a slave suspected

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of theft was liable to be tried without a jury.

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In Rhode Island, as in the other colonies, only freeholders could vote. Whereas this

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This ensured a democratic system in most of New England. The reverse was true in the Narragansett

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country, where the landowners were few and large. In 1729, this requirement was fixed

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at the substantial sum of 200 pounds sterling freehold, or an annual value of 10 pounds

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sterling, a substantial sum for the time, and five times the Massachusetts voting requirement.

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As a result, the small landowners were disenfranchised, and large landowners achieved strict oligarchic

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control of the local government of the Narragansett country.

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And these governments, headed by town councils, unique in New England, had far more power

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than the usual town selectmen.

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For one thing, the council decided absolutely on who could be admitted into the settlement,

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and who prohibited.

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It functioned also as a local court. Furthermore, jury trial was discouraged in the area, and

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a body appointed by the council decided disputes over roads. In contrast to the elected officials

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of other townships, the town council was partially appointed and only partially elected. In all

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these ways, the rule of a local landed oligarchy was reinforced.