sic) - Behind me is Linden Place Mansion.

It's a federal style home built in 1810 by George DeWolf.

George and Charlotte DeWolf both came from very prominent, wealthy families here in Bristol.

George was very much a wheeler dealer opportunist here in town in terms of business.

We always like to think of the northern states being sort of the liberators, the ones who sort of worked against slavery, the abolitionist societies, when in reality, the transatlantic slave trade involved every bit of the Rhode Island economy in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The DeWolf family owned many ships, and they also owned the town banks.

They would take these ships, they would load them up with rum, which was made here in Bristol, and they would sail to Africa, specifically Ghana, what they called the Gold Coast.

And they would take that rum, and they would trade for enslaved peoples to be brought on their ships to plantations in Cuba.

It was a very brutal journey.

Rum was in very high demand.

Rhode Island rum in particular was very sought after.

This was a huge money maker for the DeWolf family.

In 1825, George had a rush of some really bad luck, financially.

He was left basically bankrupt, but because the entire town's fortunes were invested in the DeWolf business ventures, the entire town of Bristol basically went bankrupt.

And so George with his wife, Charlotte, and their children, fled from Linden Place.

They rode to Boston, where they caught the first ship to Cuba, and they went and lived out the rest of their lives at that Cuban sugar plantation.

People woke up the next day, and the banks were closed, and they wanted an explanation of where their money was.

This led the town of Bristol into a financial depression that lasted decades.

Linden Place has been operating as a historic house museum for about 30 years.

So, when COVID took place in late winter last year, it really gave us at Linden Place a chance to step back, look at our story, think about what we're doing well, but more importantly, what are we not doing well?

What are we not talking about?

We are not talking about the contributions of African Americans to Bristol history and to the history of this house.

So we really set off investigating and researching stories that we weren't aware of before.

- My name is Lynn Smith, and I'm a volunteer here at Linden Place, so I do a little historical research.

Through the census, through birth records, through marriage records, we started to build a little bit more robust story.

Daniel Tanner was an entrepreneurial Black man, free Black man, who ran a barbershop.

In some of the southern plantations, it was quite common for the wealthy plantation owners to have what was known as a waiting man.

It was a Black slave, a man servant, who was sort of his personal valet, made sure that his clothes were perfect, his coiffure was perfect.

That tradition sort of migrated north, and barbers became well-known Black barbers for the excellence of their skill.

So we know that Daniel Tanner was probably the great grandson of a local slave, Skippio Tanner, but interestingly, he was much more than just a Black barber.

We found a story in the local Bristol Phoenix, for example, that he started the Excelsior Cornet Band, and was quite proud that he and his band marched in the very famous Bristol 4th of July parade every year.

(gentle music) - This whole adventure of delving into not only Daniel Tanner's history, but that of his family, and their connections to Bristol, their connections to Newport, we feel will open up a whole new side of this mansion's history that no one knew about.