Guide to the Obadiah Moses Brown Papers , 1782-1823

Rhode Island Historical Society
121 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
Tel: 401-273-8107
Fax: 401-751-7930
email: reference@rihs.org

Published in 2009

Collection Overview

Title:	Obadiah Moses Brown Papers
Date range:	1782-1823
Creator:	Brown, Obadiah Moses
Extent:	0.75 linear feet
Abstract:	Obadiah M. Brown was born on July 15, 1771,* the only son of Moses (1738-1836) and Anna (Brown) Brown (1744-1773) of Providence. In adulthood he added Moses as a middle name and used the signature Obadiah M. Brown to distinguish himself from his cousin Obadiah Brown, son of Joseph Brown.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	Rhode Island Historical Society
Collection number:	MSS 941

Scope & content

The collection of Obadiah Brown consists of personal and business correspondence and documents. There are letters sent and received, receipts, credit orders, stock shares, slave emancipation notes, bonds, writs, estate inventories, bible sales receipts and a day book of turnpike tolls. The collection dates from 1782 to 1823, with the bulk of the materials dating between 1810 to 1820. The collection has been organized into three series:

Series I. Correspondence - Chronological

Series II. Correspondence - Topical

Series III. Estate Records

For more detailed information about the content of each series, see the series descriptions below.

See Also: Mss 29 Almy & Brown Collection

Mss 255 Almy, Brown & Slater Collection

Mss 313 Moses Brown Collection BFPP 2

Access Points

Subject Names

• Almy, William (1761-1836)
• Barker, William
• Brown Family
• Brown, Dorcas (Hadwen) (1765-1826)
• Brown, Moses (1738-1836)
• Brown, Nicholas (1729-1791)
• Hadwen, Benjamin (1757-1840)
• Slater, Samuel (1768-1835)

Subject Topics

• Abolition Society - Providence
• Abolitionists - Rhode Island - Providence
• Cotton manufacture - Rhode Island
• Labor wages
• Quakers – Rhode Island
• Slavery
• Slaves - Emancipation
• Toll roads – Rhode Island
• Transportation - History
• Transportation - Rates
• African-Americans - Education

Subject Organizations

• Almy & Brown
• Almy, Brown & Slater
• Bible Society of Rhode Island
• Hartford School for the Deaf and Dumb
• Moses Brown School
• North Providence Turnpike Corporation
• Providence and Pawtucket Turnpike Corporation
• Society for Abolition of Slavery
• Society for the Free Instruction of the Blacks
• Union Bank of Providence
• Woonasquatucket Turnpike Corporation

Subject Topics

• Rhode Island/Local Interest
• Business

Arrangement

• Series I. Correspondence - Chronological
• Series II. Correspondence - Topical
• Series III. Estate Records

Historical note

Obadiah M. Brown was born on July 15, 1771,* the only son of Moses (1738-1836) and Anna (Brown) Brown (1744-1773) of Providence. In adulthood he added Moses as a middle name and used the signature Obadiah M. Brown to distinguish himself from his cousin Obadiah Brown, son of Joseph Brown.

After the Revolutionary War, Obadiah’s father Moses became convinced that America needed to create economic independence from England and Europe by developing domestic industries and manufacturing. He was also interested in developing methods to employ Quakers and reduce any economic dependence on the slave trade the Quakers may have had. With his son-in-law William Almy and his cousin Smith Brown, Moses decides to invest in the textile industry which was just beginning in nearby Massachusetts. Together, in 1788 they started a business known as Almy & Brown for spinning and weaving cloth in Providence. As the business became established, Moses investigated more practical methods to spin thread and became interested in the English Arkwright method using water power to run spinning frames and carding machines. Moses Brown hired Samuel Slater, recently arrived from England with direct experience and knowledge of the Arkwright machines, to design the machinery for Almy & Brown.

In 1791, Obadiah M. Brown joined his father’s business. He often acted as an agent for the company by traveling to New York and throughout the South purchasing cotton to ship back to Rhode Island. By this time, Samuel Slater had become a partner and the firm was then known as Almy, Brown and Slater. Almy, Brown and Slater was very successful and it firmly established textile manufacturing in Rhode Island which soon dominated the region’s economy.

In 1798, Obadiah married Dorcas Hadwen (1765-1826), daughter of John and Elizabeth Hadwen of Newport, RI. They had no children and she died in 1826. Like his father, Obadiah M. was a member of the Quaker faith and a strong financial supporter of the Yearly Meeting School, later named the Moses Brown School, for the education of Quaker children. He was also involved in the Bible Society of Rhode Island, which sold and distributed bibles, serving as Treasurer until his death in 1822.

Obadiah M. Brown was a religious man who became deeply committed to the Quaker doctrine calling for the abolition of slavery. He was a member of the Society of the Abolition of Slavery and the Society for the Free Instruction of the Blacks. He sponsored free blacks and found employment for them. He championed their legal disputes and provided them with financial assistance. He also became involved in securing the freedom of kidnapped free blacks who were abducted and held by slave traders in the South. In addition to the issue of slavery Obadiah M. was also involved in other humanitarian pursuits. His correspondence shows subscription efforts and personal interest in George Comstock, a deaf man whom he and his father sponsored at the Hartford School for the Deaf and Dumb. Obadiah M. Brown died on October 15, 1822 in his 51st year.

*The year of his birth is often recorded as 1770 in various documents. However, the Births and Deaths record book, 1783-1877 of the Providence Monthly Meeting which is at the RIHS documents his birth year as 1771. The inside front cover of the book states that Moses Brown was the recorder starting in 1783 and the handwriting for Obadiah M. Brown's entry is consistent with the handwriting of Moses Brown on other documents known to have been written by him.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access.
Use of the materials:	Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Preferred citation:	Obadiah Moses Brown Papers, MSS 941. Rhode Island Historical Society.
Contact information:	Rhode Island Historical Society 121 Hope Street Providence, RI 02906 Tel: 401-273-8107 Fax: 401-751-7930 email: reference@rihs.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The provenance of these papers is unknown. It is most likely that they arrived as part of the Moses Brown Papers in 1851 and possibly in 1914 or 1919. Moses Brown survived his son Obadiah Moses Brown for fourteen years and he seems to have been responsible for saving the papers of many members of the family. Most, if not all, of the Moses Brown collection was at the R.I.H.S. by 1952, when James Hedges published The Browns of Providence Plantations.
Processing information:	The John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization at Brown University, in partnership with the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and the Rhode Island Historical Society, conducted a two year collaborative project starting in1995 to arrange, describe and catalog records relating to the Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island. The Brown Family Papers Project was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Staff of the Brown Family Papers Project, John Nicholas Brown Center, Brown University, 1997.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Mark Chepkwony 2009 August 05
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Bibliography:

Buckley, Abby Isabel.The Chad Brown Memorial. Consisting of Genealogical Memoirs of a Portion of the Descendants of Chad and Elizabeth Browne, 1638-1888. New York: 1888. Conrad, James Lawson.“The Evolution of Industrial Capitalism in Rhode Island, 1790-1830”. Ph.D. diss., University of Connecticut, 1973. Hedges, James B. The Browns of Providence Plantations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952.

Inventory

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