Volume 2, Chapter 6, The Narragansett Planters
Another important inter-colonial conflict over land and territory, and of long-standing,
was the Connecticut-Road Island struggle over the Narragansett country in what is now southwestern
Rhode Island.
The controversy was resolved at last in 1726 when the Crown settled the territory in favor
The detailed line was finally drawn two years later.
By that time, however, the Atherton Company and ensuing land titles had been entrenched
and confirmed, and the land pattern of the Narragansett country had become considerably
different from the rest of New England.
Instead of compact towns, the Narragansett country consisted of large plantations, differing
from those in the South only in the commodities grown, berries, sheep, and horses, rather
than tobacco and rice. And like Southern plantations, these large farms were maintained and worked
only by extensive Negro and Indian slavery. In the major Narragansett township of South
Kingston, the population in 1730 included 965 whites, 330 men and women.
23 Negroes and 223 Indians, the last two groups almost all slaves. Two, a proportion of the
whites were indentured servants. The proportion of nearly one-half of the citizens as outright
slaves was matched only in the southern colonies. Along with the heavy proportion of slaves
came a rigorous slave code. Gone with the days of Samuel Gorton's attempt to outlaw
Law of Slavery in Rhode Island. Laws were now imposed prohibiting any Negro, free or
slave, from being out of doors after 9 p.m. on penalty of 15 lashes. No household could
allow any servant or slave to dance or gamble, and no ferryman could transport a Negro without
an authorized certificate from a master or from the courts. In addition, South Kingston
New England itself prohibited any free negro from having a slave at his house and in 1726
barred any outdoor social gatherings of Indians or negroes. Furthermore, a slave suspected
of theft was liable to be tried without a jury.
In Rhode Island, as in the other colonies, only freeholders could vote. Whereas this
This ensured a democratic system in most of New England. The reverse was true in the Narragansett
country, where the landowners were few and large. In 1729, this requirement was fixed
at the substantial sum of 200 pounds sterling freehold, or an annual value of 10 pounds
sterling, a substantial sum for the time, and five times the Massachusetts voting requirement.
As a result, the small landowners were disenfranchised, and large landowners achieved strict oligarchic
control of the local government of the Narragansett country.
And these governments, headed by town councils, unique in New England, had far more power
than the usual town selectmen.
For one thing, the council decided absolutely on who could be admitted into the settlement,
and who prohibited.
It functioned also as a local court. Furthermore, jury trial was discouraged in the area, and
a body appointed by the council decided disputes over roads. In contrast to the elected officials
of other townships, the town council was partially appointed and only partially elected. In all
these ways, the rule of a local landed oligarchy was reinforced.