"We are not negroes; we are the heirs of Ninigret" (Charlestown, Rhode Island, Oct. 9, 1866)

SUMMARY"We are not negroes; we are the heirs of Ninigret" (Charlestown, Rhode Island, Oct. 9, 1866) [Connections: Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDAt a meeting at the Ocean House in Charlestown, a Rhode Island legislative committee told the Narragansett the state was considering ending the tribe's separate legal status and making them citizens. Legislators said there ought to be no "privileged class" in Rhode Island. The Narragansett answered that they had heard much about "negro citizenship and negro equality," and replied: "We are not negroes; we are the heirs of Ninigret," claiming treaty rights and denying the legislature's right to take "that which never came from you." Fourteen years later the state ended the tribe's status and auctioned the reservation

PATTERNThe state offered "citizenship" as the way out of being a nation, and the Narragansett saw that it meant being moved into the "negro" category on paper

LENS (WW9)The nation named itself in 1866; the paper renaming came anyway

OPENGet the original 1866 committee report and the minutes of the meeting to confirm the exact wording and who said it

SOURCEDaniel R. Mandell, Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780–1880, ch. 6 "Citizenship and Termination" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2010), excerpt. Primary: Rhode Island legislative committee meeting, Charlestown, Oct. 9, 1866.