Hard Scrabble and Snow Town

Hard Scrabble was a predominantly black neighborhood in northwestern Providence in the early 19th century. Away from the town center, its inexpensive rents attracted working class free blacks, poor people of all races and marginalized businesses such as saloons and houses of prostitution. It was perceived by many white neighbors as a blight on the town. Tensions developed between the residents of Hard Scrabble and other residents of Providence. Hard Scrabble was one of several similar neighborhoods in urban centers in the Northeast where free blacks gathered to further themselves socially and economically. Other African American communities created in cities with growing job markets in the same time period include the northern slope of Boston’s Beacon Hill, Little Liberia in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Sandy Ground on New York's Staten Island. On October 18, 1824, a brawl started in the neighborhood after a black man refused to get off the sidewalk when approached by some whites. The following evening a mob of white residents attacked the homes and businesses of Black residents while many more looked on. Eyewitness accounts describe between 40 and 60 people actively tearing apart homes, some armed with axes and clubs. In total approximately 20 buildings were destroyed by the rioters. The Violence lasted from between 7pm and around 2 or 3am when the rioters voted to adjourn. Trial of the rioters The Trial took place in November 1824 under the direction of Chief Justice Thomas Mann. Of the at least 40 rioters present only 8 were identified charged for the crime: Oliver Cummins, Joseph Butler Jr., Nathaniel G. Metcalf, Amos Chaffee, John Sherman, Gilbert Humes, Arthur Farrier, James Gibbs, Ezra Hubbard, and William Taylor. Sherman and Taylor were not apprehended, not having been found by the Sheriff. Council for the Defense was Welcome A. Burges and Joseph L. Tillinghast. They argued that witness testimony was unreliable, that the defendants could not be tied to the scene of the crime, that the common law definition of a riot had been superseded by a stricter Rhode Island statute and thus did not apply, and that the destruction of Hard Scrabble had been a just and necessary endeavor. In his closing arguments for the defense of Oliver Cummins, Tillinghast compared the riots to the destruction of Babylon in the Bible. Of the 8 defendants only Metcalf and Farrier were found guilty, though these verdicts were swiftly overturned. ==Snow Town==

After the Hard Scrabble riot, the Snow Town neighborhood began nearby. It was another interracial neighborhood where free blacks and poor whites lived among crime and marginal businesses. Evidence points to its location being where the Rhode Island State House is today, along both sides of Smith Street. Like Hard Scrabble it had a reputation as a den of vice and violence and was seen as a blight on the town with calls for it to be torn down. It and the older neighborhood of Olney's Lane (now modern day Olney Street) were the targets of another series of riots in September 1831. ==Political fallout==

The Hard Scrabble Riot had engendered little media sympathy for its victims. The outcome of the trial and the broadsides published about the event depicted the event as at worst a necessary evil, and at best a righteous act. The Day after the riots ended the City government held a meeting at on the steps of the town house, addressing the violence that had occurred and the state's response and appointed a Special Committee to write a report on the riots. ==Location and memorialization==

, erected by the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society The exact location of the Hard Scrabble and Snow Town neighborhoods within northwestern Providence has been a matter of some dispute, which complicated efforts to memorialize Hard Scrabble. Partly this is due to the neighborhoods being poorly recorded in state records. Snow Town was located on Smith Hill where the State Capital and the Providence Train Station sit today. Several buildings that belonged to the neighborhood still stood during the Capital's construction, though all have since been torn down. A memorial for the Snow Town riot is located nearby at the Roger Williams National Memorial. ==See also==