Stories in Stone: God’s Little Acre, Newport RI

Before the American Revolution, Newport, Rhode Island was the largest and most active slave port in British North America. As part of that legacy, Newport is today home to a historically noteworthy burying ground that the African heritage community commonly called “God’s Little Acre.” Dating back to 1705, this section of Newport’s Common Burying Ground along Farewell Street has been recognized as containing the oldest and largest collection of original burial markers of enslaved and free Africans in America. The presentation will provide the audience an introduction to the African heritage people who lived, worked, worshipped, and eventually died in Colonial Newport within the burial markers in God’s Little Acre. The presentation will conclude with a musical interpretation interweaving burial markers of children with images of African offspring from Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, and Senegal of today so that the audience can understand the full humanity of Africans who were more than chattel property; they were flesh and blood human beings.

Presented by Keith W. Stokes, a public historian, and descendant of some of those buried in the burying ground. Stokes has presented numerous lectures across the African Diaspora.