Echoes from the Attic (Stories of Slavery and Freedom-Making in Newport, RI)

An accessible, softcover volume which takes up the unfinished conversation about what it is to be a descendant member of the Black community in Newport, RI, and beyond, today.

“There is a world of something in the nkisi bundle, and that world was brought to Newport, Rhode Island, where Black descendant communities—since the beginning of Newport’s relationship with the transatlantic slave trade—were dispersed by the wind at sea, allowing the cycles of African and African identities to begin again and flower into the vibrant community of today and its continued work toward freedom-making.”—Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes

The Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History is housed in the city of Newport’s oldest documented home at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House (ca. 1697). The title, Echoes from the Attic, comes from the discovery of a nkisi, a spirit bundle found under the floorboards of the house during its restoration; the bundle is the springboard for this new publication which features contributions from scholars, and from members of the descendant community in Newport. Moving beyond the Gilded Age and stories of Black wealth and enterprise, there are also stories of slavery, of resistance, of regeneration, and persistence.

Edited by Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes

Contributions by Rebecca Bertrand, Kaela Bleho and Zoe Hume, Akeia de Barros Gomes, Kimberly Conway Dumpson and John M. Rice, and Anthony Bogues

With stories from members of the descendant community in Newport