New Guinea and the Negro Elections in Pawtuxet Village
Drawing on both oral and print sources, Michael Bell presents an illustrated discussion of the early African American community in Pawtuxet Village, who shared in a regional tradition known as the Negro Elections. This was an annual event in which the male members of the black community elected their own governor. Beginning about 1775 and continuing to 1837, ìLection Dayî was one of the big events of the year. Many of the African Americans who participated in the event lived in a community called New Guinea, which was located about one mile south of Pawtuxet Village near Cranberry Pond in Warwick. The first settlers there were several slaves given their freedom by the grandfather of Pawtuxet’s well-known Civil War General, Elisha Hunt Rhodes.
Dr. Michael E. Bell, consulting folklorist with the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, develops and implements programs that express and interpret Rhode Island folklife and oral history. He received his Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University, Bloomington, 1980 and his dissertation topic was African American voodoo practices. He is principal scholar on the Pawtuxet Village: One Space, Many Places project and the Pawtuxet Village Freedom Project; Folklorist on the Languages of the Land: a Dialogue with Salter Grove and Fish Tales projects, amongst many others. He is on the board of directors at the Cranston Historical Society, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Voices and Visions of Village Life project, and former Chair of the Cranston Historic District Commission.
Needs: Powerpoint projector (preferred) or slide projector/screen and lighted lectern/water