New BoRIA Brochure Highlights Rhode Islanders Who Helped Shape the Revolution
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The Battle of Rhode Island Association’s newest publication, Key Rhode Islanders in the American Revolution: The Leaders, Soldiers & Patriots Who Shaped America, is now available. This richly illustrated trifold brochure tells the story of Rhode Island’s outsized contribution to American independence through the people who made it possible.
It features military leaders such as Nathanael Greene, Christopher Greene, James Mitchell Varnum, and William Barton; naval figures Abraham Whipple and Esek Hopkins; political leaders Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery; and Rhode Island’s important role in the French-American alliance.
The brochure also goes beyond the familiar names to introduce Rhode Islanders whose experiences reveal the Revolution from very different perspectives, including Black and Indigenous soldiers Caesar Updike and John George, Continental soldier Nathan Jacquays, Jane Coggeshall, an enslaved woman who escaped during the British occupation and provided intelligence to American forces, and Newport diarist Elizabeth Mumford.
Their stories, together with those of soldiers, sailors, statesmen, and civilians, demonstrate how deeply the Revolution touched Rhode Island and how significantly this small state contributed to the struggle for American independence.
This effort was funded by a grant from the RI250 Commission. You can download it here:
