The abolition of slavery was gradual. In 1774 the importation of .slaves was prohibited and every slave brought into the colony was declared free. Large numbers of them joined our revolutionary army and were declared free on enlisting. They were among the best of the American troops and rendered efficient service in the war; and finally, in 1784, all children of slaves born after that year were declared free. It is an historical fact that the first regularly organized body of American colored, troops that ever engaged in battle was during the revolutionary war under General Sullivan in Portsmouth, R. I., where they bravely withstood the charge of the British troops and more than once repulsed them.

Previous to establishing his household Mr. Robinson, of South Kingstown, engaged with others of his friends in sending a vessel from Franklin Ferry to the Guinea coast for slaves, out of his portion of which he proposed to select most of his domestic servants and farming hands and dispose of the remainder by sale, as was the custom in those days. Up to the time of the return of the vessel—such was the force of education and habit—the cruelty and injustice involved in the slave trade seemed never to have entered Mr. Robinson's mind ; but now when he saw the forlorn, woe-be gone looking men and women disembarking, some of them too feeble to stand alone, the enormity of his offense against humanity presented itself so vividly to his susceptible mind that he wept like a child, nor would he consent that a single slave that fell to his share, twenty-eight in all, should be sold, but took them all to his own house, where, though held in servitude, they were kindly cared for.

Mr. James Wilson gives a thrilling description of two old slaves, “Ned and Sip " and in speaking of others says: " I well remember two of William Dyer's slaves, named Prince and Violet. They lived in a small house which stood near the southwestern corner of the Dyer pasture, now owned by Mr. John Nichols; the cellar is still to be seen and as the garden was left in corn hills the rows can be distinctly traced, although sixty-five years have elapsed since it was cultivated.

"The Browns owned slaves, among whom were Jack Fisher, Deadfoot, Adam, Nannie and Rocher. Jack lived in the family of Governor George Brown. Fisher lived on a lot that his son, William Hawkins, bought for him at the northeast corner of the Wilson Woods. He married a slave of Christopher Hawkins named Dinah, and part of the children took the name of Brown and the remainder bore the name of Hawkins. They had a son named Joshua Hawkins, who was a very singular individual. When he arrived at the age of fourteen years he said that he was determined not to be a sod kicker and wield the scythe and hoe-stick, and accordingly he dressed himself in woman's clothes, called himself Nancy Brown, and did housework, Daniel Updike, who kept a hotel in East Greenwich, employed him for several years. He was also employed in a hotel in New Bedford. He went to Albany, and was employed for sixteen years in a hotel, wearing women's clothes. Finally, he returned to South Kingstown in the year 1849, but finding no relatives, he returned to Albany. He was about six feet high, very thin of flesh, and weighed only ninety-seven pounds. He had black eyes, and a very large Roman nose, decorated with a pair of gold specks. He was dressed in a fashionable black silk skirt, with a cinnamon-colored Spencer waist, and wore a ladies' black beaver hat, with two black ostrich feathers.

Colonel John Gardner's slaves were named Bristow, Cupidore, Pollidore and Dinah. Bristow was a soldier, and served in a. colored regiment, under Captain Guy Watson, during the revolutionary war. Cupidore was very pious, and occasionally preached the gospel. Pollidore was a ' fiddler.' Samuel Rodman, Thomas Hazard and many others also had slaves."  

The Slave Trade.— In the year 1804 the ports of South Carolina were opened for the importation of African slaves by act of the legislature, and remained open for four years. During these four years there were two hundred and two vessels engaged in this trade to the port of Charleston, and they belonged to the following places : Charleston, 61 ; Rhode Island, 59 ; Great Britain, 70; Baltimore, 4 ; Boston, 1; Norfolk, 2; Connecticut, 1; Sweden, 1 ; France, 3.. The British vessels imported 19,649 ; the French, 1,078; Charleston, 7,723 ; Bristol, R. I., 2,914; Newport, R. L, 8,488; Providence, R. I., .556 ; Warren, R. I., 280 ; Baltimore, 750 ; Savannah, 300 ; Norfolk, 287 ; Hartford, 250 ; Boston, 200 ; Philadelphia, 200; New Orleans, 100. Total, 37,775.

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