History Commons^™

Dorr Rebellion Project Selected Bibliography, Erik J. Chaput, Russell J. Desimone

Dorr Scholarship

An annotated and traditional bibliography of research materials utilized by Dr. Erik J. Chaput and Rhode Island scholar Russell J. DeSimone in creating the script for The Dorr Rebellion short-form documentary and other resources on the Dorr Rebellion Project website. For those resources which are open access, an access link has been provided within the document.

Visit the Dorr Rebellion Project website for more information:

http://library.providence.edu/dorr/

The Road Not Taken: John Brown Francis And The Dorr Rebellion, Erik J. Chaput, Russell J. Desimone

Dorr Scholarship

In this contextualizing essay, Dr. Erik J. Chaput and Russell DeSimone examine historical opposing views to Providence attorney Thomas Wilson Dorr and his attempt to reform the state's archaic governing structure in the spring of 1842. Chief among these views is that of former Governor John Brown Francis, who urged both sides to find a compromise with each other. The essay, along with a collection of letters it accompanies on our Dorr Rebellion Letters project site, elucidates how the moderate faction within the Law and Order party; had this moderate voice been heeded Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion would have turned …

The Road To Rebellion, Erik J. Chaput, Russell J. Desimone

Dorr Scholarship

In this essay, Dr. Erik J. Chaput and Russell DeSimone examine and contextualize the events surrounding the Dorr Rebellion of 1842 and the consequences that followed for those involved, primarily Providence attorney Thomas Wilson Dorr, who was the figurehead of one of the most significant constitutional reform efforts in antebellum American history. This essay, along with a collection of letters it accompanies on our Dorr Rebellion Letters project site, examines the momentous importance of the rebellion in terms of local Rhode Island history and national constitutional reform.

The Dorr Rebellion Project
http://library.providence.edu/dorr

The Dorr Letters Project
http://library.providence.edu:8080/xtf/index.html

“No Baker’S Dozen Was Her Taste”: Rhode Island, Ratification, And Rhetoric In American Constitutional History, Lucy Morroni

American Studies Forum

In 1787, Rhode Island refused to send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, becoming the only state to do so. From its early colonial beginnings, Rhode Island's unique status gave its residents the opportunity to develop equally unique attitudes about the nature of government. These attitudes, however, also made the colony particularly susceptible to criticism from outside commentators. Over time, this criticism hardened Rhode Island's individualist, self-reliant determination to resist outside control, which ultimately resulted in the refusal to send delegates to the Convention and later continued refusal to ratify the Constitution until 1790. As Rhode Island's dissidence …