Based on a collection of more than 500 previously unpublished private letters and other ephemera spanning more than a century (1802-1931), this session rediscovers and explores the life and times of abolitionist Isaac Rice – patriarch of one of the most prominent families of color in nineteenth century Rhode Island.

As direct descendants of Isaac Rice, we illuminate the primary source material they passed down through generations, including the people, places, and tangible objects that contributed to the Rice family’s belief system and examine how the Rice family understood, debated, challenged, and evolved in their thinking about the social, moral, political, and cultural issues of their time.

Notable within the Rice Family Collection are previously unpublished private letters from Obour (Tanner) Collins, David W. Ruggles, Frederick Douglass, William Cooper Nell, Louisa F. Bush, George T. Downing, Fannie Jackson, and W.E.B. DuBois to members of the Rice family. Some 300 other items of ephemera included in the private collection provide a glimpse into their daily lives, which expands our understanding of what life was life for free people of color in nineteenth century New England.

This session explores the formal and informal strategies that the Rice Family (and those within their network) used to resist oppression ranging from individual actions to grassroots and formal coalition-building.

Ultimately, the goal of this research is not only to publish, or anthologize, the more than 500 pieces of correspondence between Rice family members and friends, but also to reveal their spirit of resilience, resistance and persistence as ordinary folk who became leaders, activists, and champions for the causes of their day.