The Changing City
A View from Roger Williams National Memorial
Providence began as a sleepy farming village along the Great Salt Cove and The Great Salt River (the Providence River, today). It stayed that way into the eighteenth century, even while seaports like Newport amassed incredible wealth through the triangular trade which leveraged the sale and labor of enslaved Africans for massive profits. While Newport’s economy declined after the Revolutionary War, Providence’s fortunes turned around thanks in part to successes in the China Trade by men like John Brown. Brown even oversaw the enlargement of India Point to increase the surface area of the port to allow for more wharves–and bigger profits. Sumptuous goods from faraway lands made their way to Providence, which was quickly becoming a cosmopolitan 18th-century hotspot. Spices and silks from the East Indies were hoisted off of ships and trucked up the hill, dotting storefronts along the harbor. The distinctive smells from chocolate and paper mills and spermaceti candleworks permeated the air. As Providence became a burgeoning industrial powerhouse in the nineteenth century, the Great Salt Cove had to yield to progress and its ensuing infrastructure. By 1898 the Cove was filled in and covered with train tracks and commercial and manufacturing buildings.
Images
