America250

This book talk from author and historian Jan Lancaster will share the story of Arthur Bowler, an enslaved African, who lived in the house later called the Vernon House for at least a decade — before Cato Vernon’s time. She’ll discuss the clues available about his life in Newport, and his subsequent life in Portsmouth, New York, Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. As a so-called Black Loyalist his life followed a very different trajectory from that of Cato Vernon.

Soul Value is an interdisciplinary, duet performance project created by April H. Brown and Jessica T. Pearson which brings to life the stories of New England Black women—Elleanor Eldridge, Elizabeth Freeman, and Margaret Kinnicutt—and the men of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment during and after the American Revolutionary War. Through a compelling blend of monologue, dance, ritual, and song, Soul Value illuminates the often-overlooked contributions of Black and Indigenous people in New England history, centering their advocacy, resilience, and determination to survive and thrive. The work invites audiences to engage with a more complete and inclusive understanding of the American story while creating meaningful connections between the past and the present.

While creating the Cato Vernon Freedom Library, Lead Artist and Photographer Dominique Sindayiganza visited sites in Rhode Island where Cato Vernon may have been. As he photographed these places which are now often manicured, leisurely, and serene, he wondered what Cato’s view would have been — did this tree see Cato when it was an acorn? Does the mitochondria still hold his memory? Despite the peace of these places today, Dominique imagined the battlefields, enslavement, imprisonment, and war that Cato would have seen. The more images he took, the more he felt Cato Vernon.