‘Crossing Point’:  A Tour de Force of the Revolution and America’s Littlest Colony

When you hear "American Revolution," do you think Rhode Island? You should, as James Glickman's marvelous and surprising novel Crossing Point makes clear. The book tells the story of leading men and women in Rhode Island who played a significant role in the War for Independence. It also accurately describes the relationships of rebels and loyalists, blacks and whites, masters and slaves, and the officers and men in the Continental Army.

Not much has been written about slavery in New England in the 18^th century so it will likely come as a surprise to many that Rhode Island was home to more than 3,700 slaves in 1774. According to Douglas Harper's 2003 book Slavery in the North, slaves represented 6.3 percent of the population of Rhode Island in 1774. This percentage was twice as high as any other state in New England. As a maritime state, Rhode Islanders played a major role in the slave trade during the 18^th century — including John Brown, one of the prime movers in the founding of Brown University in the 1760s — which accounted for the greater numbers of slaves proportionately than states such as Connecticut and Massachusetts. Also, Rhode Island was home to some larger farms of thousands of acres in the southern part of the state, and these farms were organized in a similar fashion to plantations in the South.