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From Narragansett Bay:Its Historic and Romantic Associations and Picturesque Setting, by Edgar Mayhew Bacon (Google eBook) 1904
"Until 1647, each town was governed independently. The situation of each is plainly designated upon the map to-day, but where, asks the enquirer after truth, are the Providence Plantations? Except for that preamble to the constitution and certain legal forms, they have no existence. Of their rival plantations, those of the Narragansett country, there is still a remnant and a reminder. They were unequalled in Rhode Island in their day, both for their extent and for the unique society that developed upon them.
"Dividing that fertile territory that lies to the west of Narragansett Bay, in what was King's and is now Washington County, they were principalities, the extent of which was measured, not by acres, but by miles. The estate of Richard Smith comprised about twenty-seven square miles. Robert Hazard, one of the great proprietors, had under cultivation a tract containing twelve thousand acres, while not a few of his neighbours were the proprietors of equally large holdings. Let it not be supposed that these great planters were simply the nominal lords of a wilderness, over the forests and streams of which they might hunt or fish after the modern method. The plantations were under cultivation, their products as famous throughout the country for excellence as the houses of their lords were for luxury.
"The labour upon the great Narragansett estates was performed for the most part by Indians and negro slaves."
Resources
- History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biographical NY: The American Historical Society, Inc. 1920
- Plantations in the North: The Narragansett Planters Monday, March 13, 2006, by Paul Davis for the Providence Journal: "Rhode Island's Slave History"
- Pettaquamscutt Historical Society - Museum & Library
- The Narragansett planters: a study of causes by Edward Channing. Published 1886 by Johns Hopkins Press in Baltimore .
- Narragansett Bay: Its Historic and Romantic Associations and Picturesque ... By Edgar Mayhew Bacon
- rifootprints blog
- the Narragansett Pacer was the first horse breed developed in the United States, but is now extinct. The breed was used for "pacing races" in Rhode Island, where the Baptist population allowed races when the greater part of Puritan New England did not.
- http://www.archive.org/stream/narragansettplan00chanrich/narraganse...
- http://res.providencejournal.com/hercules/extra/2006/slavery/text/d...
- http://www.pettaquamscutt.org/bakermural.htm
- http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2010/septemberoctober/curio/name-drop...
- http://www.skchamber.com/community/history_of_south_kingston.aspx
- http://www.nbep.org/journals/22-2-12/Narrow-River-CulturalResources...
- http://rifootprints.com/2010/11/09/keepers-of-the-bay-part-ii-the-g...
- http://www.jamestownri.com/school/classes/grade5/begintownsfinal.htm
- https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/tragic-love-affair-unfo...
- http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44817382.pdf
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_County,_Rhode_Island