Volunteering around the block

In 1661, sixteen European families settled in the small New England island of Block Island, Rhode Island. Following the European settlement, the indigenous residents of the island, the Manisseans, experienced a rapid cultural decline. They were enslaved and inter-married with African-American slaves brought to the island. Over the generations, their descendants of mixed African and Manissean background lost the oral traditions and other aspects of their Manissean heritage. ¹ By the nineteenth century, the leading historian on Block Island declared that only a handful of elderly residents held claim to any Manissean heritage (Livermore, 1877). In short, according to him, the Mannissean heritage would become extinct with their passing. Consequently, for the past thirty years, heritage volunteers on Block Island have sought to expand the current cultural heritage narratives to include the first pre-European inhabitants ² and reclaim this lost Manissean heritage.