Scholars Online
Keith Stokes
Executive Director
Newport County Chamber of Commerce
Keith Stokes is executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife, Theresa Guzman Stokes, are working on the preservation of "God's Little Acre," a colonial slave cemetery within the Common Burial Ground in Newport, Rhode Island. Mr. Stokes is a descendant of Newport's early African American and Jewish families. A Visual Rembance: African Slave Markers in Colonial Newport provides additional information about the burial grounds. Keith and Theresa Stokes received the 2006 Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities given by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. |
- Who are you and what do you do? [0:29]
- How was Newport, Rhode Island involved in the triangle trade? [0:58]
- Where did enslaved people come from in Africa? [0:27]
- Where did African slavery originate in the United States? [1:20]
- How was slavery in New England different from slavery in the South? [1:29]
- What percentage of Newport's population was African? [0:43]
- What was unique about enslaved people's lives in New England? [1:50]
The Lives of Four African Artisans in Newport, Rhode Island is an integrated video presentation involving primary sources, maps, and a guided tour by Keith Stokes.
- What is a "day name"? [1:34]
- How did religion influence early Africans in New England? [1:54]
- How do scholars get information about early Africans in Rhode Island? [0:50]
- How can historians use gravestones as primary sources? [1:46]
- How did religion influence abolitionists in New England? [3:06]

