Moses Brown

Moses Brown

b. September 23, 1738, Providence
d. September 6, 1836, Providence

Moses Brown portrait
(Wikipedia).

Youngest of the four surviving sons of James Brown II. He and his brothers co-founded the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, later known as Brown University in 1764. He also founded the New England Yearly Meeting School in 1784, which later became known as the Moses Brown School.

Like his father and brothers, Moses spent the beginning of his adult life engaging in the economic and political life of the Colony, but following a disasterous 1764 slaving expedition, in which more than half of enslaved Africans perished, he began to withdraw from business in general and the slave trade in particular. In 1774 he became a Quaker and directed a great deal of his energies toward the abolition of slavery.

Brown was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1999.

Last Edited
2022-11-16