Immigrant Pathways in and near Fox Hill - Fox Point: A Journey through History

By Charles C. Cox III

Providence, the colonial capital of one of the original English colonies, has a remarkable history. It is the first place in the New World where the individuals did not have to proclaim their religious allegiance to any particular spiritual affiliation. This, the gift of its founder, Roger Williams. The city he founded is built in the midst of hills converging at the headwaters of Narragansett Bay. Possibly its most famous is known as College Hill, the site of what originally was named the College of Rhode Island, later to become renowned as Brown University.There is Federal Hill, so named according to one legend, because in 1789, at the ratification by Rhode Island of the new U.S. Constitution, a celebration was planned to honor the formal entry of the state into the Union. Alas, an imminent invasion by angry South Country farmers, fully armed with pitch forks and homemade projectiles, threatened a riot if this celebration became any more than a simple ratification of this unpopular- to- some dictum. But the name held: Federal Hill, for the federalists.Less famous, but no less significant to the evolution of the city, is yet a third hill with its history unfolding later, in the mid-19th century. Originally known as Tockwotten Hill, then Fox Hill, then sometime in the 19th century becoming Fox Point, this small slice of geography would house a history beyond that of Anglo-America, beyond that of Rhode Island's colonial origin. Originally, there is little to induce people to try and settle the land between these rivers- the Seekonk and the Providence- when there is so much more arable land to the west and north of the town. By the 18th century, however, the docks and wharves along the Providence River will team with ships carrying trade along the eastern seaboard of Anglo-America, south to the Caribbean, and east toward Africa. Some of this trade will be known in history as the infamous "Trade Triangle". It will be based on molasses coming from the Indies to Rhode Island and other New England states, being turned into rum, and the rum shipped to Africa in exchange for slaves. So our journey through Fox Hill begins. Travelers on a walking tour proceed up Hope St. On the east side is Williams St., Fox Hill's direct- if transplanted- connection to the American Revolution. It was on June 9, 1772, that a group of angry men assembled at the Sabin Tavern, then located on South Main St. Their intent was to plot an attack on a British schooner, the Gaspee. The plot would lead to the first act of rebellion in any of the colonies when, on the evening of June 9th, 1772, these men torched the Gaspee.After the triumphant American victory in the Revolution, a new transformation awaited this colony- now turned state. It begins with Samuel Slater who, in 1793, built the country's first factory in what would become known as Pawtucket, R.I. It was a textile "manufactory" based on the textile revolution that had earlier unfolded in Britain. From farmland to sites for working class housing, Fox Hill's character begins to change and by the mid-1840s, the flood of Irish immigration hits the city, and nowhere more than Fox Hill; a new immigrant neighborhood springs to life. Especially with the building of the Providence-Boston Railroad in the mid-1830s and laying the track throughout, the need for laborers is unquenchable. It is the Irish who fill this need. Their settlement in Fox Hill, spurs the genesis of the name "Corky Hill".The history of Fox Hill involves a second large immigration influx in the 19th century. It will be the Portuguese and Cape Verdeans who begin immigration into the United States, especially in the years after the Civil War. Finally, gentrification, so much a part of the histories of other old cities, takes hold in Providence during the 1980s. Fox Point's gentrified dwellings and shops show yet another chapter of rebirth in this old venerable Providence neighborhood.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1537232975
• ISBN13: 9781537232973
• Release Date: October 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 26 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.1" x 5.3"