Newport History is the flagship peer-reviewed publication of the Newport Historical Society. Published since 1912, it is one of the oldest journals in America. More than 340 issues have been produced, with over 1,000 articles about Newport County’s rich and storied history. Newport History is a blend of scholarly writing and reminiscences, and is richly illustrated with period photographs, maps, and engravings.

In this article by John M. Rice, the great-great-grandson of Isaac Rice, considered to be one of the most illustrious citizens of nineteenth-century Newport, John traces his ancestor’s leadership in the antislavery movement in Newport by drawing on family papers and artifacts, as well as archival records, biographies, and other accounts. Opening with a letter written by the great abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass to Isaac Rice’s daughter, Mary Ann C. Rice Remington in 1860, John describes the web of abolitionist connections and activism by members of the Rice family and their distinguished antislavery colleagues.