Two Brownstone Memorials

Abstract

Brownstone memorials: one a church, one a grave monument survive quite forgotten in Providence. But their history reveals a noble past. John Prentiss Kewley Henshaw served at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Baltimore from 1816-43. He returned to Rhode Island to become its first bishop. He represents the complicated history of the United States leading up to the Civil War. He was integral in the emancipation of African Americans in Maryland and helped many to establish churches both there and in Rhode Island. These two memorials reveal the artistic, cultural and religious history that is complicated and far from simple that leads up to the Civil War.