There’s a painting on display right now in the Rhode Island Statehouse that tells an important tale of American history: It’s the story of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment — a military regiment composed mostly of Black enlistees. The painting is called “Brave Men as Ever Fought.” It’s by historical military artist Don Troiani. Morning host Luis Hernandez talked with Ray Rickman, the co-founder of the non-profit Stages of Freedom, which addresses racial inequities in Rhode Island, and Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore.
Transcript:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: Your first impression of the painting, the one thing that stands out the first time you saw it. Mr. Rickman.
Ray Rickman: It’s beautiful, but there’s a problem. It’s not real, it’s not realistic. It isn’t how they dressed. Almost all the images, including the famous ones you see of the Black soldiers, are racist. They pushed them down, they messed with their faces and their figures. And then in the 1960s you see better in the 1970s, you see better. And then you get around to this and they look like they should have been looking because they should have been dressed properly, which they weren’t. They should have been treated properly, which they weren’t. So this is beautiful. Go see it.
Hernandez: That’s a fascinating answer by the way. Secretary, your thoughts.
Gregg Amore: I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia in my capacity as the chair of the RI 250 commission, Ray and I both serve on that commission, and we asked to see the painting. They opened the museum up for me on a Sunday morning, to view the painting. And I had only seen it, through photographs of when it was first presented. And I walked down into the basement of the museum and there it was, ready for our viewing, and I was, I was taken aback. It captures you immediately and then you want, you want to ask questions, and I think that’s the beauty of this painting is the moment you see it, you want to ask questions, you want to inquire, you wanna know more.
Hernandez: My understanding it’s on loan, so we only have it for a set amount of time. How did you end up getting it here?
Amore: That morning I said, can we have it? And the director of the museum said, of course you can. This is Rhode Island’s. It’s the nation’s, but it’s also Rhode Island’s, kind of like our history. And so we arranged to have it brought here. We had a tremendous showing for the unveiling in the state room at the Statehouse, and it is with us until the end of June. But the commission has agreed to purchase an official replica. So the artist will sign it. It’s one of only five that will be purchased, and so Rhode Island will have one of the five replicas on display somewhere or everywhere.
Hernandez: You, you, you say that it makes you ask questions. Have you been hearing those questions from people who’ve seen it? Mr. Rickman, you’ve been nodding.
Rickman: It’s a teaching tool. All these things are, because Rhode Island, like America, doesn’t teach its history. And so, of course, I don’t wanna give you a long answer, but the American Revolution got saved by a whole lot of things, including Black enlisted men, Indigenous folks, all on the edge or more. Helping to kill the King’s plan to hold the nation. So I wish Americans knew that.
Hernandez: How much does the painting try to teach us any history, or is it just, again, making us ask questions as to why we’re not doing more?
Rickman: I like the ask the questions. Remember, we’ve never asked any questions until 20, 30 years ago. It wasn’t permissible. If you got up in school and said to the history teacher, “Why are there no Black soldiers in an image?” They would’ve told you, “Jimmy, sit down. We’ll talk about that later.” It’s only in the last 30 years that the nation says, okay, let’s tell the truth. And also the truth is intriguing. You know, we went to Yorktown, we went to Boston. Rhode Island was out there. We’re, to be proud, my friend Bob Burke likes to suggest that we really did the whole war ourself. It isn’t true, but we were deeply involved.
Hernandez: Alright, so let me play a little bit of professor then. I wanted to ask each of you, what’s one interesting thing about that 1st Regiment that we should know? Mr. Rickman.
Rickman: It’s statewide they are in. Most of them are enslaved. They get their freedom. It’s honored by probably, 99% of them get what they’re promised, which is unusual for Black folks to get what they’re promised. There’s some shenanigans. Now remember, these are white folks sending their enslaved people to war, so they don’t have to go. They’re chicken. I don’t blame ’em. I’d be chicken myself. But that’s probably despicable.
Hernandez: Secretary, what’s one thing we should know too about that 1st Regiment?
Amore: Yeah, so we talk about it as the first Black regiment. You know, it was a few companies of Black soldiers in an entire regiment. That’s one of the questions that gets asked, was this an entirely Black regiment? No, it was a few companies within the 1st Regiment. But it’s a first. And the other thing is Rhode Island was not meeting its recruitment levels. And so this was the way to meet those recruitment levels, to catch up to the British who were already offering freedom to slaves or freedmen, but slaves really who had left, escaped and entered the British ranks. And so Rhode Island was trying to catch up. And since we had more slaves in Rhode Island than any of the other New England states, there was a pool of these folks and it ended up being about 130, 140, Black soldiers. And you know, there’s, there’s a lot to that, right? This was to meet recruiting requirements for the war effort.
Rickman: The failure of the regular population to do their share.
Hernandez: We think of Black enlisted soldiers, we start to think a lot about the Civil War, but I’m wondering how much these soldiers played in the abolitionist movement in New England that came after that time. I’m just curious.
Rickman: We know names, you know, there’re 12 or 14 of these people who went on to do Underground Railroad, who did abolitionist work in a really broad sense. Who petitioned the legislature. This is the beginning, in Newport especially, of Black organization and creating organizations. You know, all of Black life, this is a long answer. All of Black life is pushing back up against the establishment, if you wanna be nice. Trying to get your freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to own land freedom to freedom to freedom, even freedom to go to war and get yourself killed.
Amore: At the forefront of this painting is James Forton. A 15-year-old who observes this Black regiment, this Black company, and it inspires him to think that we are marching toward a more perfect union. But then he writes a letter to William Lloyd Garrison years later, many years later, and Forton had become an abolitionist and a significant abolitionist, writes a letter of kind of disappointment of where we were in 1830 as compared to where he thought we would be after as a young man seeing this Black regiment.
