A Course in Rhode Island History #1: Background and Rationale

In 2019, the RI General Assembly adopted new regulations for History and Social Studies standards, requiring that they “be designed to instill respect for the cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity of this state, and for the contributions made by diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial groups to the life of this state.” This resulted in the formation of the Rhode Island History and Social Studies Advisory Committee (RIHSSAC), which from 2020 to 2022 wrote a new set of standards that will be much shorter and more succinct than the current GSEs while including Culturally Responsive and Susteaining Education standards. These are presently in the final stages of approval -- I would say more about these but they are still in "draft" mode and are "confidential." Hopefully the final version will be coming out...soon?

Then in 2021, the RI Legislature codified this and further required that these new “standards shall include, but not be limited to, the history of the state of Rhode Island, representative government, the rights and duties of actively engaged citizenship, and the principles of democracy.” Also in 2021, the state passed legislation requiring that all "middle and high school students attending public schools, or any other schools managed and controlled by the state, shall demonstrate proficiency, as defined by the local school district, in civics education that shall also satisfy half credit or course requirement in history and social studies."

To that end, I am putting together a proposed one-semester course in Rhode Island History that will both meet the CRSE requirements of the new standards and teach civics through the lens of Rhode Island History. After running this idea past my department head and consulting with educators of RI History at the RIHS and URI, I began drafting a proposasl for the course. At first the proposal was just a brainstormy list of topics that kept getting longer and longer...my dept. chair suggested that I reorganize the list into subtopics that could become units of study, and I also decided each unit should have a set of guiding questions to also frame the investigation of each subtopic. My dept. chair liked this a lot better and after we went over each one he became increasingly enthused about the course. Then the two of us ran a one-unit breakdown of the propoasl by the assistant principal to see if she thought the course was viable and whether the organization was on the right track. She gave me a simialrly enthusiatic go-ahead to develop a full course proposal that could go through the approval process in the fall. I am heartened by the reception to the course I gotten so far, and my goal is to have the proposal fleshed out before the end of July.

Over the next month I will be exploring the various topics to be included in this course proposal. Below is the list of units and subtopics. In the days to come I will discuss the content, guiding questions and source materials for each unit. I am not married to the wording of any of these, and some of them will likely change as I continue to think and rethink about them.

I. Intro: Rhode Island Geography and Narragansett Bay

Geology and Physical Geography

Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic

Political Borders

II. The Founding of Colonial RI and Roger Williams

Roger WIlliams c. 1603 - 1636

Roger Williams and Rhode Island’s Four First Towns

Roger Williams and Freedom of Religion

First Amendment: Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause

III. The Narragansett People

First People: Archaeology and Algonquin Oral Histories, 12,000 BP to c. 1500 CE

Effects of First Contact and European Interaction on Algonquin Lifeways, to 1636

The Narragansett Before and After King Philip's War

The Narragansett in Jim Crow Era Rhode Island

Narragansett Tribal Recognition: 1975 to Present

IV. Slavery, Emancipation and Civil Rights for BIPOC Rhode Islanders

The Colonial Slave Trade, Slavery, and Rhode Island’s Plantation System

Gradual Emancipation and Black Rhode Islanders in the Antebellum Period

African Americans and Asians in Jim Crow Era Rhode Island

The Civil Rights Movement in Rhode Island

Post-1960s Demographics and Immigration

V. Rhode Island’s Economy

Intro (Colonial RI): The Land, The Bay, and the Atlantic Market, 1636-1790

Rhode Island and the Industrial Revolution, 1790 - 1860

Post-Civil War Industrialization: Peak and Decline of Rhode Island Manufacturing

Rhode Island in the Cold War: the US Navy, Electric Boat, The Interstate, and the Rise of the Suburbs

Rhode Island in the 21st Century

VI. Rhode Island Democracy: Demographics and Politics

Colonial era

Rhode Island in the 17th Century: Patents and Charters, Boundaries and Wars

Rhode Island in the 18th Century: New Towns and the Providence/Newport Rivalry

Discontent and Revolution: The War for Independence in RI

Antebellum Era

Anti-Federalism, The Country Party, and the US Constitution

The Dorr Rebellion

Rhode Islanders in the Civil War

Post Civil War

Gilded Age Rhode Island: Wealth, Immigration and Urbanization

Political Machines and the Limits of Progressivism in Rhode Island

The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Rhode Island

Twentieth Century

Republicans vs Democrats and the Fight for the State House

Rhode Islanders in WWII

Reynolds v. Sims and redistricting (1964), the 1986 Constitutional Convention, and Separation of Powers (2004)

The Present Day

Rhode Island in the 21st Century