Rhode Island & American Revolution

After summarizing events in the American colonies leading up to the American Revolution, this lecture will examine the early acts of resistance by Rhode Islanders, the colony’s declarations of renunciation and independence, its privateering era, the two occupations of Aquidneck Island to include the Battle of Rhode Island, and its overall military contributions. The lecture will conclude with a summary of its overall contributions and the Revolution’s impact.About the presenter: After a 21-year career as an infantry officer in the Army, Fred Zilian was an educator at Portsmouth Abbey School, where he taught history, ethics, and German, and an adjunct professor of history and politics at Salve Regina University. He now lectures on a wide variety of subjects, gives literature and poetry readings, and offers tours of Newport, the Battle of Rhode Island (1778), and Boston. Zilian holds a Ph.D. in international relations/strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of numerous articles, essays, and book reviews on a wide variety of subjects in numerous publications and platforms from the Wall Street Journal to the Newport Daily News. For 10 years he was a regular columnist for the Newport Daily News. He has also published a book: From Confrontation to Cooperation: The Takeover of the National People’s (East German) Army by the Bundeswehr. For 20 years he performed as Abraham Lincoln in his one-man play, “Honest Abe.”

[Photo Credit: Plan de Rhode Island et les differentes operations de la flotte-françoises et des troupes americaines commandées par le Major General Sullivan contre les forçes de terre et de mer des Anglois depuis LOC. https://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000885/, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]