Wednesday, October 29, 2025 5pm to 6pmLecture sponsored by Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy
DATE: 5:00-6:00 p.m. EST 29 Oct. 2025
LOCATION: in person (518 Bellevue Ave, Newport , RI 02840) and online (register below for virtual link)
EVENT WEBSITE: https://events.salve.edu/event/atlantic-voices-in-colonial-newport?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=Salve+Regina+University
CONTACT: Teresa Haas (te*********@***ve.edu) (401) 341-2371
Atlantic Voices in Colonial Newport: Rethinking Trade, Religion, and Culture in Early North America
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US we will begin the public component of this afternoon with the multilingual letters found at the Newport Historical Society, one in English, Spanish, and Portuguese in an effort to think of all of these languages as early American languages.
In dialogue with the Pell Center’s mission of upholding democracy, and complicating the narratives of what is early America, we are hosting a panel discussion to consider the influence of Aaron Lopez in context with colonial New England and specifically Newport, his contact with the transatlantic triangle trade, as slave trader, and Sephardic Jew who was denied naturalization in RI due to his religious identity. We will put this in context with the broader dynamics of the western Sephardic Diaspora from Newport, Portugal, the Caribbean, Africa, and Amsterdam.
Panelists include:
Gabriel Rocha, Brown University
Oren Okhovat, Yale University
Emily Colbert Cairns , Salve Regina University
Dan Syndacker, PhD Johns Hopkins
Isabella Meier, Salve Regina class of ’27
Joseph Weisberg, Brandeis University
Lecture: Atlantic Voices in Colonial Newport