Dorr Rebellion Project Selected Bibliography →
An annotated and traditional bibliography of research materials utilized by Dr. Erik J. Chaput and Rhode Island scholar Russell J. DeSimone in creating the script for The Dorr Rebellion short-form documentary and other resources on the Dorr Rebellion Project website. For those resources which are open access, an access link has been provided within the document.
Pamphlets: Contemporary Assessments of the Dorr Rebellion →
Learn more about what contemporaries of the Dorr Rebellion thought about the conflict by exploring these pamphlets written during or shortly after the rebellion took place.
Rhode Island – Interference of the executive in the affairs of June 7, 1844 →
by United States Congress. House. Select Committee on Rhode Island; Burke, Edmond, 1809-1882.
Rhode Island in 1842. Minority report of Committee of Congress appointed to inquire into the interference of the President in the affairs of Rhode Island in 1842 →
by United States Congress. House. Select Committee on Rhode Island; Causin, John, M. S, d. 1861.
Other Dorr Scholarship →
View a larger collection of scholarship related to the Dorr Rebellion.
Newspaper Reminiscences of the Dorr Rebellion
The following links will take students and researchers to newspaper accounts and reminiscences of the Dorr Rebellion. Unlike contemporary pamphlets, scholarly monographs and other articles listed in the bibliography, these newspaper accounts are less readily accessible.
Other than one article published in two parts by staunch Dorrite, William Balch, all accounts were authored by men who were either members of the Law & Order Party at the time of the rebellion or, at the very least, non-Dorrites. Though the authors’ rationale for writing these late-19th century accounts are not completely known, it is clear that the authors wanted to commit to paper their take on the rebellion for posterity and to explain their actions in the spring of 1842. Only Balch’s account was intended to rebut the narrative of another writer. Whatever the reason for writing these accounts it must be kept in mind that they were written thirty or more years after the rebellion and, as such, their accounts are subject to facts clouded by the passage of time.
These accounts are presented in chronological order:
- Henry B. Anthony contributed an article titled “The Dorr War in Rhode Island” to the New York Ledger on August 6, 1870 as part of a series of twelve article by distinguished senators of the United States.
- Zachariah Allen was an uncle of Thomas W. Dorr; his account, “The Dorr War” was published in the Providence Press on May 7, 1881 (page 6).
- A series of five articles titled “Reminiscences of the Dorr War” appeared in the Manufacturers and Farmers Journal in January 1885. These articles are signed “H” and ascribed to Edward H. Hazard. (January 15 – page 1, January 19 – page 2, January 22 – pages 2 & 8, January 26 – page 8)
- Arnold Greene presented his “Constitutional History of Rhode Island” as a series of three public lectures, the accounts of which appeared in three newspaper issues, of which only the first and last have been located (March 12, 1885 – page 2 and March 19, 1885 – page 2) of the Manufacturers and Farmers Journal.
- William S. Balch, a staunch Dorrite, in response to Edward H. Hazard’s articles “Reminiscences of the Dorr War” published in the Providence Daily Journal in January 1885 sent a lengthy article in two parts (March 16, 1885 – page 9 and March 30, 1885 – page 9) to the Manufacturers and Farmers Journal.
- Abraham Payne’s series “Some Other Reminiscences” appeared in a series of nine articles in the Manufacturers and Farmers Journal in the fall of 1885. (October 8 – page 2, October 15 – page 2, October 22 – page 2, October 29 – page 2, November 5 – page 2, November 19 – page 2, November 26 – page 2, December 3 – page 2 and December 10 – page 2)