Another View of the Bristol Independence Day Celebration - Ali Cabral

Another View of the Bristol Independence Day Celebration - Ali Cabral

The Bristol Rhode Island Independence Day Celebration is 236 years old this year.  I am having a hard time comprehending that for almost 81 of those years, just one block away from Main Street, slave ships docked in Bristol’s harbor. 

I wonder how did the Citizens of Bristol rationalize beating the drums of freedom one day, and beating into submission their human cargo the next?

Rhode Island was the epicenter of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.  Bristol merchants promoted, prolonged and profited from the business of slavery.  In truth, the Bristol Independence Day Parade is a monument to a mythology of history that never existed for Black Americans.  Frederick Douglass addressed this in his speech The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro:

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The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass

The history of Rhode Island’s unique place in America’s participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, has recently come to light in academic circles, but is yet to be included in Rhode Island’s K-12 curriculums?  Why?

At this moment, Americans of all stripes are being forced to look in the mirror.  I suggest that the town of Bristol acknowledge its history in next year’s Celebration.

 

Ali Cabral is an author and the Founding Director of Providence Inner City Arts (PICA)