I made the Newspaper

Nice interview in the Pawtuxet Village newspapers, The Bridge.

Rebecca's Revival- The story of Rebecca Brotten

                      Rebecca Protten (1718-1780


Rebecca's Revival is the remarkable story of a Caribbean woman--a slave turned evangelist--who helped inspire the rise of black Christianity in the Atlantic world. All but unknown today, Rebecca Protten left an enduring influence on African-American religion and society. Born in 1718, Protten had a childhood conversion experience, gained her freedom from bondage, and joined a group of German proselytizers from the Moravian Church. She embarked on an itinerant mission, preaching to hundreds of the enslaved Africans of St. Thomas, a Danish sugar colony in the West Indies. Laboring in obscurity and weathering persecution from hostile planters, Protten and other black preachers created the earliest African Protestant congregation in the Americas.
Protten's eventful life--the recruiting of converts, an interracial marriage, a trial on charges of blasphemy and inciting of slaves, travels to Germany and West Africa--placed her on the cusp of an emerging international Afro-Atlantic evangelicalism. Her career provides a unique lens on this prophetic movement that would soon sweep through the slave quarters of the Caribbean and North America, radically transforming African-American culture.
Jon Sensbach has pieced together this forgotten life of a black visionary from German, Danish, and Dutch records, including letters in Protten's own hand, to create an astounding tale of one woman's freedom amidst the slave trade. Protten's life, with its evangelical efforts on three continents, reveals the dynamic relations of the Atlantic world and affords great insight into the ways black Christianity developed in the New World. 

 Photo of oil painting (courtesy of Jon Sensbach) by Johann Valentin Haidt, held by the Moravian Archives (Unity Archives [Archiv der Bruder-Unitat]), Herrnhut (Germany). Christian Protten (1715-1769) and Rebecca), (1718-1780 an ex-slave and Moravian convert were married in Germany in 1740; shown also is their child, Anna Maria Protten.

 Christian Jacob Protten also Christian Jakobus Africanus Protten or Uldrich (15 September 1715 – 24 August or 23 October 1769) was a Euro-African Moravian missionary pioneer, linguist,
translator and educationalist-administrator in Christiansborg on the Danish Gold Coast in the eighteenth century. The first recorded grammatical treatise in the Ga and Fante languages was written by Protten and published in Copenhagen in 1764.


 Rebecca was born on the British Caribbean Island of Antigua, possibly as the child of a black mother and white father. It is debated whether or not she was born free in Antigua, but it is known that she was sold into slavery at the age of about six to a prominent planter on the Dutch island of St. Thomas by the name of Lucas van Beverhout. Beverhout became extremely fond of Rebecca and saw her extraordinary vigor for Christianity blossom at an early age, which in turn lead him to teach her to read and write, and also led to her being freed. In 1736, at about the age of eighteen, she met a German missionary named Friedrich Martin who saw the effectiveness of Rebecca as a tool to connect with the black slaves on the island.The missionary work of these two figures turned the slave population of St. Thomas into a small cluster of believers, whether they truly accepted the word of Christ or used religion as a way of getting intellectual freedom from slavery, the outcome was no different, they turned to the religion anyway.

Read more about this powerful woman.
https://khronikosum.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/the-limits-of-rebeccas-revival/

Rev War Exhibit at Hearthside and Battle at Chase Farm

In October, The American Revolutionary War came to Lincoln, Rhode Island. The Hearthside House, which I am a docent for 10 years, set up a Rev. War exhibit and invited reenactors to come and camp out on the local Farm near the house.
 Well, what a grand event it turned out to be. Reenactors from all over New England can in full gear, cannons and guns, tents and supplies for a two day battle.

Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Gilbert, of the Pawtuxet Rangers, came to give a talk on the Gaspee affair.

The Revolutionary War encampment and battle on Chase Farm was very exciting and very well done. People came from all over New England to see this battle.

Brattonsville Volunteering Training - Kay Moss 03/01/2014

This sounds like an interesting training. I enjoy historic cooking.
 

Gaspee Day Parade and Encampment

This is a yearly event held in Pawtuxet Village, Gaspee Point, Warwick, Rhode Island, in celebration of the Burning of the English Ship that was captured and burned in the Bay, June 9, 1772. 

The Gaspee Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee was a British customs schooner that had been enforcing the Navigation Acts in and around Newport, Rhode Island in 1772.

The weekend celebration includes a grand parade with the Pawtuxet Rangers, which I am a member of.

 The Pawtuxet Rangers were chartered in 1774 to protect the thriving seaport of Pawtuxet, and at various times throughout the Revolutionary War manned the fort on Pawtuxet Neck, a function vital to the defense of both Pawtuxet and Providence. As the war progressed, the Rangers were called upon to participate in major engagements in other areas including the Battle of Rhode Island and the Battle of Saratoga.

  We set up a 18th century  encampment where folks could ask question of the event and learn more about the Pawtuxet Rangers.

 As a new member of the group, I was honored to show my skills at 18th century cooking and learned how to rope my own bed.

The most exciting part of the event for me was to watch the firing of the big canyons. What a thrill to be so close and feel the thunder. It was a total adventure! 

       The Pawtuxet Rangers of Rhode Island

What Cheer Day 2019: Sports & Games from the 18th Century

On Saturday June 1, 2019 at the John Brown House Museum, approximately 25 costumed historical interpreters  shared leisurely pursuits with visitors.

 The activities were family friendly and which included:
• Bowls, the colonial version of bocce/boule. 

• Rounders, an early variation on the sport we know as baseball.


• Games that soldiers enjoyed such as cricket. 

• Games that children played such as  hoop and stick, along with battlecock and shuttledoor. 


There were various stations featuring children’s toys, gambling and horse racing. 

There were a lady’s tea with lawn bowling, known as 9 pins in the 18th century,

 and a tavern illustrating various card games. 

Visitors could “step up to the plate” and try their hand at many of these family-friendly activities while learning about life in early Rhode Island and how people spent their leisure time.

 Additionally, a series of dedicated/scheduled afternoon activities that included:
• Dressing scenario in a lady’s riding habit.

• Hair styling and appropriate head wear for ladies when traveling.

* There was a demonstration on "How to make dolls from strips of material.

• Recreating a scene from a mid-18th century play about a popular card game.
 


What Cheer Day was free and open to the public. It took place on the lawn of the John Brown House Museum in Providence, RI.

 History Space is a Newport Historical Society initiative in partnership with the Rhode Island Historical Society.