Why a group says a planned monument recognizing RI's slavery history is in the wrong place

NEWPORT – A multiyear effort to establish a monument recognizing the history of the slave trade in Newport has received pushback from another local historical group, which argues it is being put in the wrong place.

“The Company is in full support of the creation of the memorial,” Col. William Farrell of the Artillery Company of Newport wrote in a letter to the City Council. “As purveyors of living history, we welcome it – and defend the right of anyone in this country to tell their story. However, we do not feel that the park should be defining the history of one group by erasing the history of many others!”

The Artillery Company of Newport is the country’s oldest military unit operating under its original charter, and it maintains a museum in the historic armory building at 23 Clarke St. The Rhode Island Middle Passage Port Marker Project has been working on erecting a memorial recognizing the role Newport played in the slave trade since before 2018, when the sign marking the future site for the memorial was installed in Liberty Square at the intersection of Malborough Street and Farewell Avenue.

The design for the memorial, which was unveiled in 2022, features five 11-foot-high walls made of preserved wood which lead visitors into a larger open space bordered by three 14-foot walls at the back of the site with inscriptions and benches. The project is part of a nationwide effort to identify all 48 sites that were ports of entry for Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The Artillery Company requested that the City Council establish a “more appropriate marker” in the square or move the proposed memorial to an area “that would better accommodate its size and scope.”

“At our recent meeting, Company members expressed concerns that an 11-foot-high walled enclosure, no matter the number, would potentially lend itself to misuse … collecting trash, graffiti and an assortment of waste products,” Farrell’s letter states.

In a conversation with The Newport Daily News, Farrell also said the company was worried about homeless Newporters congregating around the site.

While the letter expresses several concerns about the memorial, it is the location, Farrell argues, that the Artillery Company of Newport is concerned with the most. While the organization has “full support for the creation of the memorial,” according to his letter, Farrell said the land was given to the city in 1748 by Maj. Nathaniel Sheffield and Daniel Thurston to be used as a mustering place for the Artillery Company in perpetuity.

“Converting the park from its current presentation would go against the original designation for the use of the land,” Farrell’s letter states.

Also of concern to the Artillery Company is the President George Washington tree, which the Daughters of the American Revolution planted in 1932 to honor the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington, which the company and the modern Daughters of the American Revolution are concerned might be demolished to make way for the memorial in addition to other historical markers erected in the site honoring other occasions, such as the 350th anniversary of the city and the 250th anniversary of the Artillery Company.

However, the co-chairs for the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project Committee, Victoria Johnson and Peter Fay, submitted a rebuttal to the Artillery Company’s letter and said any action by the City Council on the ongoing process would be “premature and unwarranted.”

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“Respecting the process created by the City Council, the Newport Middle Passage has been working closely with the Newport Tree and Open Space Commission for years to gain endorsement of the Memorial’s design,” the letter states. “In earlier meetings with the Commission, the members heard the same objections that Colonel Farrell raised, thanked them for their participation, but chose not to act on them.”

The letter also explained the tree dedicated to President Washington would be used as a focal point for the gathering space portion of the memorial and that all other markers on site would be retained in prominent spaces in the existing park.

The organization is hoping to present the memorial design to the City Council soon with the Tree and Open Space Commission’s recommendation.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Rhode Island Middle Passage Port Marker plan in Newport draws concern