In old Narragansett; romances and realities

								

violent passions, which was characteristic of the Robinsons, but of
benevolent, noble nature.” Many stories are told of his impetuous
generosity and kindly impulsiveness, none being more characteristic
than his action when his first cargo of slaves came from the Guinea
coast. Slave-dealing was such a universal practice at that date among
wealthy residents of Narragansett and Newport that it was a commonplace
business enterprise for Rowland Robinson, when he was building his new
house, to send a ship to Africa for a cargo of negroes, intending to
keep the most promising ones for his own household and farm servants,
and to sell the remainder. But when the ship landed at South Ferry, and
the forlorn, wretched, feeble men and women disembarked, he burst into
tears and vowed that not one should be sold. He kept them all in his
own household, where they were always kindly treated. He never again
sent a vessel to Africa to engage in the slave-trade, though one negro
of royal birth--Queen Abigail--was so happy in her Narragansett home,
that with Rowland Robinson’s consent and his liberal assistance she
returned to her home in Africa, found her son--the negro prince--and
brought him to America, where he became Mr. Robinson’s faithful
body-servant.
The wealthy planter had other sources of income than slave-trading. He
owned great ships that engaged in general commerce. He had an immense
dairy and made fine Rhode Island cheese from the milk of his beautiful
“blanket-cows.” It was his ambition to have one hundred of these lovely
black-and-white animals, but it is a matter of tradition that, while
he could keep ninety-nine readily enough, when he bought or raised
the hundredth cow, one of the ninety-nine sickened and died, or was
lost through accident, and thus the number still fell short. Great
quantities of grain and hay did he also raise on his fertile farm;
and besides the grain and cheese that he shipped to the West Indies
he also sold to the wealthy colonists many Narragansett pacers--swift
horses of the first distinctively American breed. These pacers all came
from one sire, “Old Snip,” who it is said was of Andalusian birth and
was found swimming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, was hauled
on board a trading-ship and was carried to Narragansett, where he was
allowed to run wild on the Point Judith tract. These sure-footed pacers
had a peculiar gait; they did not sway their rider from side to side,
nor jolt him up and down, but permitted him to sit quietly, and thus
endure without fatigue a long journey. In those carriageless days,
when nearly all travel was by saddle and pillion, the broad-backed,
easy-going Narragansett pacers were in such demand that they brought
high prices and proved a good source of income.
Three children were born to the builder of this beautiful colonial
home: William Robinson, who died in Newport in 1804, in a house on the
corner of Broadway and Mann Avenue, and two daughters, Mary and Hannah.