| FB-52417-06 | Research Programs: Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | Elizabeth Cazden | Rhode Island Quakers in a Slave-Based Economy, 1660-1780 | 7/1/2006 - 6/30/2007 | $40,000.00 | Elizabeth | | Cazden | | | | Unaffiliated Independent Scholar | Providence | RI | 02906-1672 | USA | 2005 | U.S. History | Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | Research Programs | 40000 | 0 | 40000 | 0 |
Despite their belief in universal salvation and high ethical standards, Rhode Island Quakers (Friends), including the applicant’s family, participated in the economy of a colony at the heart of the transatlantic slave trade. Quakers owned slaves, built vessels for the African trade, dominated the legislature that enacted slave codes, and invested in slave voyages. This project will use Quaker records, probate and tax records, and other primary and secondary sources to document and analyze the extent and types of Quaker involvement in the slave-based economy, and to trace the changes in those patterns as Friends came to question the morality of slavery and, by 1773, to ban slave-holding by their members. |