The Peculiar History of Democracy in Rhode Island: A Presentation for the Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society, July 27, 2022

Last night I gave my first public history lecture since November of 2020. I gave my presentation on Rhode Island democracy for the Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society, in the Tavern Room at the Paine House Museum. 

In a way it is also a history of political parties in Rhode Island, as well as a history of the General Assembly, and a history of the struggle to maintain (or upset) the status quo. I give a modified version of this presentation to the students on the RI Model Legislature leadership team. It is important students have an understanding about the history of the institution they are imitating.

Setting up the projector in the Paine House Tavern

The other thing I got to do was test drive my Surface Pro tablet running a presentation. The fan in my old HP ProBook 450 G1 died over a year ago, and I am running an external fan that pulls the hot air out through the exhaust port to keep it from overheating and cooking itself. Every time I restart it, I have to bypass the warning screen reminding me that there is no operational fan in the device. It has been out of warranty for seven years; that laptop has totally earned the right to hang out in my office and not leave the house anymore. 

I also had to buy a USB C to HDMI VGA Adapter to connect the tablet to the projector, but it worked flawlessly. The only technical bumps were a) my powerstrip decided to take a permanent dirt nap, so I had to borrow one from the museum, and b) the AA battery to the mouse, which I use to click through the slideshow took a nosedive about 15 minutes into my presentation. But I have some extras in my brief case because this happens all the time at work. It only took me half a minute to get that dead battery swapped out. So overall not many technical problems. And the tablet worked just fine.

It's 6:30... Time to get started!

Below are some of the highlights from last night's presentation of the history of Rhode Island's Colonial era, the American Revolution and Early American Republic period. These slides are all from the first half of the presentation. If you want to find our what happens next and how it all ends, have your local historical society book me to come in! 

Enjoy!

Someone somewhere must have uttered a more delightfully arrogant boast of the power they wield over their constituents. But if so, I have yet to see it.

If you have, please post it in the comments.

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Note: the images used in this post are subject to copywrite and appear here for educational purposes only. Any commercial use of the information or images on this this blog post are strictly forbidden. 

If you use any of the information from the slides, please abide by the following Creative Commons license: