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The history of Rhode Island is truly remarkable. The Story of Rhode Island is my humble attempt to tell you some of the stories about the people, places, and events that have made Rhode Island the state it is today.
To learn more about the show visit the Story of Rhode Island Podcast website at https://www.storyofrhodeisland.com/
You may be familiar with the fact that Providence was once one of America's most powerful industrial centers. But are you aware of how it managed to become such an industrial powerhouse?
When founded in 1636, Providence was anything but great. Most contemporaries considered it a backwater full of religious outcasts clinging to the absurd notion of religious freedom. In the decades that followed its founding, its very survival was in doubt—neighboring colonies threatened its sovereignty, and Native nations responding to years of oppression left the town in ashes during King Philip’s War. Even when it rose from the ruins to become a busy port by the mid-1700s, Providence still lived in the shadow of Newport, the colony’s pride and joy.
But by the late 19th century, Providence was an entirely different city. Not only was it a leading industrial center in a nation undergoing one of the most transformative economic revolutions in history, but it was also home to some of the largest and most influential manufacturing companies in the entire world.
The city’s rise to national prominence is a dramatic one. It’s a tale of a city going from ashes and uncertainty to playing a key role in powering America’s industrial age. This is the Story of Rhode Island, and in today’s episode I’ll tell you about how Providence went from being an overlooked settlement to a thriving industrial metropolis.
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In the decades following its founding, Providence was nothing more than a tiny fishing village that had one goal - survival. While Roger Williams and his followers cherished their belief in complete religious freedom and the separation of church and state, the rest of the western world thought they were nuts, especially their uptight Puritan neighbors. Believing they were building God’s kingdom in New England, or what John Winthrop called a “City Upon a Hill”, the Puritan leaders had no intentions of allowing Providence's radical experiment in religious freedom to taint their vision of a perfect godly society. And so, they tried to destroy it. Throughout the mid-1600s, Massachusetts continuously tried to absorb Providence and the rest of Rhode Island into their colony—moves that certainly would’ve ended Williams’ bold experiment.
Against all odds, Providence somehow managed to retain its sovereignty but then an even bigger problem arose. In 1675, local native nations went to war with the English colonists and their indigenous allies and for a period of time it looked like not only Providence but all of English society in New England was coming to an end. As the conflict known as King Philip’s War continued to escalate, indigenous warriors throughout New England went on a rampage, ruthlessly destroying any English town in their path. One of those settlements was the town Williams founded decades earlier. By the time it was all said and done, nearly every building in the town was destroyed, marking a low point in Providence’s history and a moment where its very survival was in doubt. But luckily for the colonists, the English found a way to win the war and Providence was rebuilt.
The decades following that dreadful experience proved to be more promising but were still a long way from national prominence. Throughout the first half of the 18th century, Rhode Island’s founding city experienced an economic revival largely driven by the Brown family, a well-to-do group of Providence merchants who will play a core part of our story today. Brothers John and Moses Brown helped bring prosperity to their town through shipping, manufacturing, and their participation in the notorious triangle trade, an endeavor that entailed trafficking African captives. By the eve of the Revolution, the Browns and other risk-taking merchant families turned the town at the tip of Narragansett Bay into a thriving commercial port. But at the end of the day, there was no denying the fact that Newport was the center of life in Rhode Island. The fifth largest city in America and widely considered Rhode Island’s economic crown jewel, Newport was the driving force behind the colony’s financial success. One scholar has even called Newport “one of the greatest sights of the colonial seaboard”. In short, it seemed like whatever Providence could do, Newport could do better.
Now, in the following decades, Providence did manage to overtake its rival to the south. With troops occupying Newport from 1776 to 1779, the town experienced an economic downturn. And although it managed to make a postwar comeback, it was never quite the same—and by 1790 Providence had become the state’s principal port. But this isn’t a story about how Providence overtook Newport. It’s much more than that. It’s a tale about how Rhode Island’s founding town, a place once considered nothing more than a home for religious outcasts, became one of the most economically prosperous societies in America. And it’s during this time period when Providence's transformation into an industrial powerhouse really began. It started with a series of developments that occurred during the late 18th and early 19th century - chief among them being the creation of a mill in Pawtucket whose name has become synonymous with the state’s rich economic history.
In December of 1790, Samuel Slater did something that nobody in America had ever done before - he spun cotton into yarn using water powered technology. Supporting Slater in his endeavor were members of the Brown family. While Moses Brown funded Slater during these early years, his cousin and later his son-in-law served as Slater’s business partners, giving the aspiring industrialist access to the resources and markets critical to his success. By 1793, Slater Mill was up and running and acted as the spark that ignited America’s Industrial Revolution. But the enormous economic impact it would have on Providence and the rest of America didn’t happen overnight. It’s not like Slater built his mill and then textile factories just started popping up everywhere. In actuality it took time and while the fuse on that economic explosion continued to burn, other advancements were taking place - advancements that would make Providence ripe for transformation when the spark finally reached the powder.
The first of these advancements was Providence becoming the financial capital of Rhode Island. The origins of this change started with the creation of the Providence Bank in 1791, the first financial institution of its kind in Rhode Island. As with many of Providence’s major developments at the time, the Brown family played a central role in its founding. Recognizing the need for stable credit and a solid financial foundation to support the city’s shipping ventures, John Brown and his nephew, Nicholas Brown Jr., supplied the capital and influence to get it on its feet. The bank not only became a key financial institution for the state and a model for future institutions to replicate, but also set the stage for Providence to emerge as the financial capital of Rhode Island.
Another key evolution were the improvements made to transportation. After recognizing the need for better roads to speed up the flow of raw materials and finished goods between cities across the region, Providence entrepreneurs began creating a host of turnpikes in the 1790s. And once again, the Brown family played a critical role in this development. Through their firm, Brown & Ives, they invested in sixteen toll roads across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. By making these improvements to transportation it helped to make Providence a key trade hub of southern New England.
And so, Partially due to these developments, Providence’s prosperity continued to grow—capital from the Providence Bank fueled new business ventures, improved roads expanded the city’s reach to consumers and resources, and the Brown family’s trade empire stretched across the globe. For a time, it seemed like Providence’s future would forever remain tied to maritime trade, making it prosperous but never truly exceptional. But then came a turning point. Pressures from global conflict and closed ports forced Providence to pivot, and the city shifted its energy from ships and cargo to mills and machines, a change that marked the beginning of a new era—one that would propel Providence beyond regional success and into national prominence. It began in 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson responded to Britain’s seizure of American goods and the forced impressment of sailors by closing the nation’s trade to the outside world. Then, that trade war turned into an all out military conflict known as the War of 1812. With trade now stifled throughout the United States, Rhode Island merchants had a reason to invest in textile manufacturing. Almost instantly, textile mills began popping up left and right and Rhode Islanders became obsessed with manufacturing. Their infatuation grew so great that Moses Brown said that the people in his state were consumed by “Cotton mill fever”. And he wasn't wrong. From 1801 to 1815, the number of textile factories grew from just 4 to 100. Needless to say, the American industrial revolution that would eventually spread throughout the north was well underway in Rhode Island. Even when a postwar depression slowed the manufacturing industry and put many textile mills out of business, Rhode Islanders managed to stagger back to their feet and by the mid 1820s textile manufacturing had officially overtaken maritime activities as the state’s primary economic focus. And of all the towns in Rhode Island, none benefited off this change more Providence. In fact, the state's move to manufacturing and Providence’s ability to capitalize on it is exactly what would propel the town into greatness. So Let’s take a look at how this happened.
Like all success, Providence’s rise to greatness was not only due to hard work but circumstance as well. Because While Roger Williams never conceived of Providence becoming an industrial powerhouse, the location he chose for his settlement helped guide it in that direction. To start, the town sat at the head of Narragansett Bay, a waterway where three of Rhode Island’s largest rivers converged. These rivers not only powered the first generations of textile machinery but also carried in the raw materials needed to keep those mills running. At the same time, Providence Harbor served as one of southern New England’s great arteries of seaborne trade as it proved to be an ideal location for local mills to export their finished products and import key resources like coal and raw cotton. On top of that, it also sat directly in between some of the nation's largest markets, Boston and New York, making it a natural stopping point for consumers and producers traveling between the cities. Therefore, due to this web of waterways and its advantageous position between two major markets, Providence naturally ended up being surrounded by some of the nation’s earliest textile factories and the commercial activity it generated.
But one would be sorely mistaken to believe that its rise to greatness was solely due to luck. Societies throughout history have been positioned for greatness only to end up failing to act on the opportunity at hand. Thankfully, Providence was full of risk taking entrepreneurs who worked tirelessly to turn Providence into an industrial powerhouse. As we saw earlier, Providences leaders unexpectedly prepared their town to capitalize on this change via the advancements that were made towards financial services and transportation. And as industrialization continued to pick up pace, the town’s entrepreneurs doubled down on these advancements. As the town’s merchants turned industrialists built more and more banks and turnpikes throughout the region, an increasing amount of capital, natural resources, finished goods, and people made their way into Providence. That rate of traffic grew even greater with the creation of the Blackstone Canal in 1828 and the state’s first railroad in 1835. At the same time, other industrial entrepreneurs diversified the town’s economy outside of just textile manufacturing by starting businesses in auxiliary industries. As silverware, machine tools, precious metals, and base metals businesses emerged, Providence quickly developed the most diversified economy in the region. And so what we see taking place in the 1820s and 30s isn’t just industrial growth but a full blown transformation. By the end of the 1830s, Providence had received its city charter and boasted one of the strongest and most diversified economies in southern New England. With it now officially being a city of regional prominence in both name and economic weight, it was time to turn it into a true national power.
Providence’s transition from regional prominence to national powerhouse was the result of decades of continued success. Like an already large snowball pushed down the steepest slope of college hill, Providence’s economy throughout the remainder of the 19th century grew at a relentless rate. Leading this success were emerging industrial giants like Joseph Brown, Luciano Sharpe, John Gorham, William Angell, William T. Nicholson and George Corliss - each of whom turned their already well-respected Providence businesses into some of the largest in their industry. And as their businesses, along with many others, continued to grow throughout the 1840s and 50s, thousands of other immigrants poured into the city in search of work. Due to this economic fervor, Providence’s population grew by over 1,000% from 1820 to 1860, far outpacing the state’s overall population growth of 154%. While economic downturns like those in 1837 and 1857 momentarily halted this progress, Providence’s entrepreneurs managed to weather the storms of these economic panics just like they had following the War of 1812. Even the Civil War couldn’t stop their progress. By shifting the focus of their industrial output to meet the government’s demands for military supplies, Providence manufacturing companies actually grew even more powerful during the war. Then, when the horrific conflict finally came to an end, Providence’s manufacturers went back to producing a wide range of goods for an increasingly consumer-minded society. And so, By the time the last quarter of the 19th century had arrived, Providence was unrecognizable to its 18th century self. Not only was it a thriving metropolis but it was one of the ten largest industrial centers in the entire nation. With factories roaring, ships crowding the harbor, and newcomers flooding its streets, Providence pulsed with energy—its booming, diversified economy and ceaseless commerce painted the picture of a city in the middle of its golden age. And serving as the heavyweights among an already formidable lineup of manufacturers was a group of businesses known as Providence’s five industrial wonders, a set of companies that were some of the largest and most influential manufacturing businesses in the entire world. Making up this legendary quintet of industry were Brown & Sharpe, Gorham Manufacturing Company, American Screw Company, Nicholson File Company, and The Corliss Steam Engine company - all of which churned out innovative products that enabled them to lead the respective industries. If you were a 19th century manufacturing company in need of the highest quality machine tool products you went to Brown and Sharpe. If you were a consumer looking to acquire new sterling silverware for your home you sought out those with the Gorham Manufacturing Company logo. And if you happened to be in Philadelphia attending the opening ceremonies of the United State’s Centennial Exhibition you would’ve witnessed President Ulysses S. Grant start George Corliss’ Centennial Engine, a monstrous machine that powered nearly every exhibit at the entire fair. Because of these businesses and a host of others operating out of Providence, there was no denying that Rhode Island’s founding city had achieved greatness. But just in case anyone doubted what they achieved, the decision was made to build an opulent new statehouse in the city. After nine years of construction, the building built out of marble boasted one of the fourth largest self-supported marble dome structures in the world and was one of the first major public buildings to have electricity. Installed atop the building was an eleven foot, gold-covered bronze statue of a man we know today as “the independent man”. To the untrained eye, that marble dome and golden statue might suggest a city born great, a society who’s success was simply handed to it. But as we’ve seen, Providence had to earn its greatness. Its earliest settlers had to scratch and claw just to survive the 17th century. Its merchants and industrialists had to work tirelessly for decades to surpass Newport and transform Providence into one of the most powerful industrial centers in the nation. So the next time you see that statehouse—and the golden figure standing watch from its summit—I hope you’ll see more than just a building. I hope you’ll see the story of a city that refused to be forgotten, and think of the people who made Providence one of the greatest cities of 19th century America.