Newport Gardner's Anthem: A Story of Slavery, Struggle, and Survival in Early America

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Edward E. Andrews

Newport Gardner's Anthem

A Story of Slavery, Struggle, and Survival in Early America

Edward E. Andrews

$111

Hardback

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English

Cornell University Press
15 October 2025

Biography: historical, political & military; Social & cultural history; Colonialism & imperialism; Slavery & abolition of slavery; Politics & government

Newport Gardner's Anthem explores the remarkable life of Occramer Marycoo, an enslaved African who went on to become one of early America's most important Black leaders. In the mid-eighteenth century, Marycoo was taken from West Africa to Newport, Rhode Island, where he was forced into racial bondage and given a name that symbolized the power that his new city and new enslaver held over him: Newport Gardner. In this powerful book, Edward E. Andrews pieces together newspaper articles, church records, letters, and Gardner's own writings to tell the story of his life.

After acquiring his freedom via a winning lottery ticket in 1791, Gardner became a kind of Founding Father for Newport's free Black community. He established and led several Black benevolent organizations that helped the community navigate the complicated waters of freedom as Rhode Island slowly began the process of emancipation. He became a popular educator to young Black Newporters, and also emerged as a key religious figure, serving as a long-standing pillar of Newport's First Congregational Church and later founding an independent Black church in the 1820s. His final act was leading a group of about three dozen Black New Englanders to Liberia, in hopes that a new start in Africa would be better than the discrimination they faced in America.

A richly textured account, Newport Gardner's Anthem tells the story of a forgotten Black leader while exploring the new, but tragically limited, opportunities for formerly enslaved people in the post-Revolutionary world.

By: Edward E. Andrews
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 907g
ISBN: 9781501783548
ISBN 10: 1501783548
Pages: 242
Publication Date: 15 October 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1. Two Newports 2. A Lottery Ticket and a Court Case 3. Newport Gardner and the African Benevolent Societies 4. Of Sound and Spirit 5. The Vine Conclusion

Edward E. Andrews is Professor in the Department of History and Classics at Providence College. His research lies at the intersection of race, slavery, and religion in the early modern Atlantic World.