Editing East Greenwich, Rhode Island (section)

==History==
East Greenwich, the 8th oldest town in Rhode Island,<ref name="eastgreenwichri.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.eastgreenwichri.com/196/History-Birth-Place-of-the-Navy|title=History & Birth Place of the Navy {{!}} East Greenwich, RI|website=www.eastgreenwichri.com|access-date=February 6, 2019}}</ref> was founded in October 1677 by the [[Rhode Island General Assembly|General Assembly]] in an attempt to solidify land claims against those of [[Connecticut]] and the Narragansett Proprietors. The Assembly designated 5,000&nbsp;acres to the new town and provided lots to settlers who would agree to live there—land was deeded to 48 men who had fought in [[King Phillip's War]] against the Wampanoag.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of East Greenwich |url=https://eghps.org/cpage.php?pt=8 |website=East Greenwich Historical Preservation Society |access-date=January 22, 2021}}</ref> Locals quickly took the assembly up on this offer, and the quick establishment of the town helped hold back plans of Connecticut in pushing their border eastward.<ref name=James>{{cite book|last=James|first=Sydney|title=Colonial Rhode Island: A History|year=1975|publisher=Kraus International Publications|isbn=9780527187200|page=104}}</ref> East Greenwich was therefore the only Rhode Island town established by an act of government, not commercial interests.<ref name=Daniels>{{cite book|last=Daniels|first=Bruce C.|title=Dissent and Conformity on Narragansett Bay: The Colonial Rhode Island Town|year=1983|publisher=Wesleyan|isbn=9780819550835|page=[https://archive.org/details/dissentconformit0000dani/page/30 30]|url=https://archive.org/details/dissentconformit0000dani/page/30}}</ref> In 1687, the Narragansett Proprietors attempted to settle land north of Wickford which overlapped with the land of East Greenwich; however, the Massachusetts governor [[Sir Edmund Andros]], who had authority to settle the dispute, ruled in favor of the existing East Greenwich settlement.

In the 18th century, the government released previously reserved waterfront property in small lots. Beginning in 1711, the local government granted these lots to any person who would pay one shilling and promise to build a commercial building of a minimum size. By 1725, a community had developed, complete with a schoolhouse and a graveyard. However, citizens of the town complained that attending town meetings was too difficult due to the size of the town, which prompted the splitting of [[West Greenwich]] into its own town in 1741. The town erected a courthouse when East Greenwich was designated the [[county seat|shire town]] of the newly formed Kent County, which had been separated from [[Providence County]] in 1750. On June 12, 1772, a resolution was passed by the Rhode Island State Assembly to form the United States' first Navy in East Greenwich, which included two ships, the [[USS Providence (1775)#Service as Katy|Katy]] and the Washington. The Assembly put Captain Abraham Whipple in charge of this new military branch and these ships, with the formal title commodore.<ref name="eastgreenwichri.com"/>

In its colonial days, the town was also home to followers of a former [[Quakers|Quaker]] who, after a severe illness, claimed to have died and been resurrected as the "[[Public Universal Friend]]"; these followers financed a meeting house within the town.<ref name="Daniels" />

===Scalloptown===
[[File:Scalloptown-shanties-2048x1598.jpg|thumb|right| Scalloptown shanties in the early 20th Century]] 
In the 19th Century, East Greenwich attracted a wave of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavian countries, as well as free Blacks.<ref name="Landeck" /> Many settled in a small community which came to be known as Scalloptown, as many residents made a living from fishing and selling scallops.<ref name="Landeck" />  As it grew, the neighborhood of immigrants and mixed ethnicities developed a reputation as a "shantytown" of "low and lawless nature" by white writers and community leaders.<ref name="Landeck" /> The neighborhood's height was from 1890 to 1913.<ref name="Landeck" /> In 1913, the town council condemned many of the residences of Scalloptown as unfit for habitation.<ref name="Landeck" /> Currently, only one shellfish processing business remains on the street.

Most of East Greenwich's neighborhood of Scalloptown was destroyed by 1926, after a mass eviction order by the town council left most of its buildings vacant. Scalloptown had been the attention of reformers in town for some time. Scalloptown was the site of "Neighborhood House", a [[settlement house]] run by [[Sarah Fernandis]] from 1908 on.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Streich |first1=Catherine |title=Beginning & End of EG's Black Enclave: Scalloptown, Part One |url=https://eastgreenwichnews.com/scalloptown-beginning-and-end-of-egs-black-enclave-part-one/ |website=East Greenwich News |access-date=December 12, 2020 |date=August 1, 2020}}</ref> But, historian Catherine Streich argues, the racial prejudices of white East Greenwich residents and their dwindling desire for social reform led to their destruction of Scalloptown.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Streich |first1=Catherine |title=Reform – What Went Wrong? Scalloptown, Part Two |url=https://eastgreenwichnews.com/reform-what-went-wrong-scalloptown-part-two/ |website=East Greenwich News |access-date=December 12, 2020 |date=August 2, 2020}}</ref>