In 1964, my third-grade teacher relied mainly on an air of motherly authority to maintain control over her classroom of more than 50 8-year-olds. But when pushed, she warned darkly of deploying her spanking machine.
With this text, the colony of Rhode Island outlawed the importation of enslaved Africans and established the immediate emancipation of enslaved people in the colony in 1774. However, the law stipulated some important exceptions that made this change particularly ineffective.