It’s hard to know exactly what life was like for an enslaved person in New England in the 1700s. But an art installation in Newport uses just a handful of documents about one man to tell his story, then asks visitors to use their imagination to fill in the blanks. Center Aquidneck is a group of artists who created the Cato Vernon Freedom Library at the Vernon House, an historic home on Clarke Street in Newport. It’s named after its third owner, William Vernon, who was a prominent merchant, civic leader, Revolutionary War hero and slave trader. Cato Vernon, the namesake of the installation, was enslaved in the Vernon household.
The Comte de Rochambeau used the Vernon House as the headquarters for the French military during the Revolutionary War. Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington himself spent time in the house. But Rebecca Noon, one of the artists behind the project, says the Freedom Library is their way of making Cato Vernon the most famous person to live there. “So in our artistic interpretation of history,” she says, “we're leaning into this feeling of, even someone who has limited space in the archive, we can actually use his story, think about his memory, what he's left behind, and try to uncover (his story). Also, how does research work? What is history? How do we live in our collective storytelling when there's so much that we can't know because the archive is not limitless, even though people's stories have been.”
The installation connects the dots of what little we know about Cato Vernon’s life: he was born in 1759, he served for 5 years in the Revolutionary War, and he was briefly in jail in 1793. But it also asks visitors to use their imagination. In one room, you’re given a flashlight, and you sit in the dark listening to a recording. “General George Washington slept in this house in the room just above us now, actually. So did the Marquis de Lafayette.” Peter Coriander narrates the recording, and he asks visitors to shine their flashlights at the ceiling. “Same room, right above your head. What if I told you that George Washington was sleeping there now? Right there. I know you’re saying, ‘Peter, George Washington died like 200 years ago, he’s not sleeping above my head right now.’ But what if we just pretend?”
One thing we do know is that William Vernon, the owner of the house, fled to Boston when the British occupied Newport. Meanwhile, he essentially loaned Cato Vernon to serve as an apprentice to a shipbuilder in East Greenwich. “He goes to this apprenticeship,” Rebecca Noon says, “this forced apprenticeship by John Glazier, and it's then from there that John Glazier writes a letter to William Vernon and says, ‘Cato Vernon is making himself free by enlisting in the army, in the Rhode Island 1st Regiment.’ And then the government pays William Vernon, and then John Glazier gets a percentage of that. So they all got paid.”
The Rhode Island First Regiment was one of the first all-Black and Indigenous military units in the Revolutionary War. The enslaved men who enlisted were guaranteed freedom for their service. Cato served for five years and received a badge for “bravery, fidelity, and good conduct.” A hand-drawn map on the wall traces Cato’s path in the war: south to Yorktown, Virginia, then north to Utica, New York, mostly on foot.
There’s also a timeline, with entries for what is known for sure about Cato’s life and then a lot of blank space. Visitors are encouraged to add events to the timeline to help fill in the blanks. Rebecca Noon points to where someone added the burning of the Gaspee in 1772 to the timeline. “It's kinda interesting to think,” she points out, “Cato Vernon, a teenager in Newport- how did that impact him? Did he think about it? But then there's also questions that people are asking. ‘Where did you live before you moved to 46 Clark Street?’ ‘What and where did you eat?’ This is our hope that, over time, we get to understand more of what our community is thinking about in terms of what is important on a timeline of Cato Vernon's life and filling in.”
One of the exhibit's centerpieces is a copy of a letter from 1793. It’s printed larger than the original so it looks as important as the Declaration of Independence, which is displayed on another wall. It’s from Cato Vernon to William Vernon, his former enslaver. Cato sent the letter from the Newport Jail where he was being held due to a debt. He asked William for four or five dollars.
Gina Tangorra works for the Newport Restoration Foundation, which owns the Vernon House and is collaborating on the installation. She points to the clues that we can glean from the letter. “He talks about basically that he has a gangrenous foot,” she says, “and that it also seems to imply that's also connected to his money problems.” Cato is concerned that he will need to have his foot amputated, which would make it difficult for him to find work. “ And if you think, again, he's just gone through this incredible service for over five years,” she adds, “in a really physically difficult war where there was not a lot of funds for uniform, shoes, lots of disease, and he survived all of that. And then this is dated 1793, so quite a few years after the war. And he's in this position where he is no longer enslaved, but seems to be struggling to sort of adapt to his new living situation.”
William Vernon did pay Cato Vernon’s debt, and Cato was released from jail, but he continued to struggle financially.
Along with the sound installation and artifacts and documents, the Cato Vernon Freedom Library features a reading room with historical information for visitors. They’ve also used the space for art-making workshops, musical performances and presentations from historians. URI art professor emeritus Bob Dilworth has been leading sewing circles at the Vernon house as part of the exhibit. He said he was drawn to the project because of Cato Vernon’s story. “He was a Rhode Islander, an enslaved person who really was determined to find freedom.” He says, adding, “And I'm always interested in the stories of freedom seekers. In a way, it is a way of telling a story of creative resistance and the creative ways that they found a way to freedom.”
The exhibit includes pictures by Dominique Sindayiganza taken along Cato Vernon’s path, showing what the areas look like now as, for example, a baseball field, a swimming pool, or a contemporary street in Newport. Bob Dilworth and his sewing circle have been translating those photographs into a quilt. There are two more sewing circle events left during the run of the installation, and the public is welcome to join.
The Cato Vernon Freedom Library is a compelling way to think about history and imagine the life of one particular person, who could stand in for so many others in a similar position. You have to use some imagination to build the story, but it lets you be an active part of remembering history.
The Cato Vernon Freedom Library
The Vernon House, 46 Clarke Street, Newport, RI
Open Tuesdays - Sundays, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. through Nov. 22.
Sewing Circles with Bob Dilworth
Nov. 14 & 21, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Walking Our Past, an Artist Talk with Jason Roomes and Dominique Sindayiganza
Nov. 15, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Freedom Singing Circle with Kelly Robertson
Nov. 18, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
