Over the next two years, the John Brown House Museum will completely change over from historic house-style period rooms to themed exhibit spaces highlighting histories from Rhode Island’s complex and significant past. This room was originally the formal parlor and the main entertainment space for the Brown, Gammell, and Perry families. Over the years, this room has seen and served the most important guests that have entered the home.
Now, this room is home to the Rhode Island Historical Society’s exhibit on Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. Based on the book of the same name by Christy Clark-Pujara, PhD, Dark Work examines how the institution of slavery was central to the development of Rhode Island. Through business records, legislation, objects, and letters written in their own hand, the exhibit explores the lives of the people living within the institution of slavery in Rhode Island.