Discovering a Hidden Record of Survival: How Roger Williams University Students Chronicled a Story of Slavery and Freedom

December 4, 2025By Kelly Brinza

A rare find in a Rhode Island home sparked a multi-university research effort, led by Roger Williams University students, to uncover the hidden story of a man's escape from slavery and into a life of global maritime freedom.

BRISTOL, R.I. - When Cynthia "Cindy" Elder '87, a member of Roger Williams University's President's Board of Advisors, sorted through her late in-laws' home five years ago in Barrington, R.I., she expected to find the usual family keepsakes. Instead, tucked inside a drawer on a three-season porch, she uncovered hundreds of 19th-century papers chronicling the lives of her husband's merchant sailor ancestors - the Jenkins family.

Elder, an author from of family of museum curators, immediately recognized the historical value of these documents and began producing a book about the family. Buried in a stack of documents set aside as "throw away," she found something entirely different: a handwritten manuscript that launched a multi-university research effort between Roger Williams University, Brown University, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Thomas White's manuscript details his escape from slavery in Maryland and his journey north, where he found a life of freedom and global exploration aboard merchant ships.

The manuscript opened with an emotional account of sorrow, faith, and endurance. Elder soon realized she was reading the life story of Thomas White, a man born into slavery in Maryland in the early 1800s, who escaped around the age of fifteen. His narrative traced a perilous northward journey through abolitionist networks, followed by years working and traveling the world aboard merchant ships.

Elder was stunned. She said she remembers thinking, "How did a manuscript from a formerly enslaved man end up inside our family's sailing records?"

Knowing she needed expert support, she turned to her two alma maters: Roger Williams University, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree as a double major in Creative Writingand Career Writing, and Brown University, where she received a Master of Public Affairs in 2013.

Cynthia Elder '87 recalls her shock and awe after realizing the tattered pages she found held the firsthand account of a formerly enslaved man.

RWU Professor of HistoryCharlotte Carrington-Farmer seized the opportunity and formed a team of student researchers to lead the process of transcription, verification, and contextualization. Carrington-Farmer said early progress was slow, hindered by inconsistent handwriting, missing dates, and an initial lack of corroborating evidence. However, that changed dramatically last spring, when two students located a Boston marriage certificate for Thomas White and Ellen Stewart. Those names matched ones in the manuscript and confirmed critical details about White's life, including occupations, addresses, and the minister who married them.

Rachel Cabral, a senior History major from Cranston, R.I., who has been leading the research, describes the work her team has done to verify the content of Thomas White's manuscript.

"That document was a breakthrough," said Rachel Cabral, a senior History major from Cranston, R.I., who has been leading the research for more than a year since her junior year. "It gave us our first firm foothold. Before that, we couldn't even confirm that White's last name was really White."

The find propelled the research forward, allowing students to trace White's movements across the globe through historical society archives, municipal record archives, and secondary source references. His manuscript recounts his escape on foot and by train - a technology he had never before seen and marveled at - from Maryland, which Cabral noted was likely closer to 1841 than the 1831 date he recalled in his account.

Thomas White's manuscript recounts his time working aboard merchant ships that brought him to major ports around the globe.

Once he made it to New England, White found work at a young ladies' seminary in Pittsfield, Mass., before moving to Boston, where he met and married Ellen. Soon afterward, White began working aboard merchant ships, embarking on a series of voyages to San Francisco, Peru, Australia, India, and back to the U.S. His manuscript documents a dramatic episode in Baltimore, where he narrowly avoided being re-enslaved when the ship on which he was working docked in Maryland - the state he had fled. But for most of his time as a free man, White prospered, taking on roles such as cook, steward, and even started several small businesses at some of the ports where he decided to live and work for brief periods.

UMass Dartmouth Professor Timothy Walker, a leading expert on the Maritime Underground Railroad who joined the research team, noted that manuscripts like White's are exceedingly rare.

White's story, Carrington-Farmer said, adds a crucial firsthand account to the small but growing body of scholarship on maritime escape. The sea, as historians increasingly recognize, offered opportunities for mobility, literacy, and economic independence not available on land. Professor Timothy Walker, a leading expert on the Maritime Underground Railroad from UMass Dartmouth, joined the research effort and noted that manuscripts like White's are exceedingly rare. "Thomas's narrative offers an intimate view into how Black seamen carved out paths to freedom," Walker said. "His story broadens our understanding of what escape and self-emancipation looked like."

Cabral's team also uncovered the remarkable history of White's wife, Ellen Stewart. Born enslaved in Washington, D.C., she was among the more than 70 people who attempted escape on The Pearl, the largest nonviolent escape attempt from slavery in U.S. history. Though the attempt failed, abolitionists later raised funds to purchase her freedom, enabling her to move to Boston, where she met Thomas. Archival documents suggest the couple had a daughter, Gertrude, born in 1857. Students are now tracing Gertrude's descendants in hopes of reconnecting the family with this newly surfaced history.

"We've been working on compiling a family tree to not only fully understand Thomas White, but to reunite his story with his family," said Cabral.

Student researchers trced Thomas White's movements through historical society archives, municipal record archives, and secondary source references.

As their work continues to authenticate his story and uncover more of his family history, Cabral, Carrington-Farmer, and Elder are sharing Thomas White's remarkable journey in various ways. Earlier this year, the Smithsonian Magazinewrote an article about their find and the research endeavor. Carrington-Farmer and the student researchers also collaborated with University Archivist Heidi Benedict on an exhibit featuring Thomas White's journey, which is on display in RWU's University Librarythrough Feb. 2, 2026.

Today, the Thomas White manuscript is being prepared for permanent preservation at Brown University's John Hay Library, where it will be accessible to scholars and the public. Other Jenkins family documents will be housed safely at the Sturgis Libraryin Barnstable, ensuring that nothing else ends up forgotten on a back porch.

RWU Professor of History Charlotte Carrington-Farmer explains the significance of finding this manuscript and why the research is crucial to preserving Black History.

For Carrington-Farmer, the significance of the discovery is profound. At a moment when debates over how American history is taught continue nationwide, she sees the manuscript as an urgent reminder of the power of firsthand narratives. "People think they know what slavery was," she said. "But too often we've relied on secondhand descriptions or records created by enslavers. Here we have the voice of an enslaved teenager - later a free Black man - sharing his own experiences in his own words."

"That voice," she went on to say, "reveals both the brutality of slavery and the ingenuity, resilience, and agency of someone who envisioned freedom for himself and pursued it across continents." She also noted that this manuscript underscores the fragile nature of historical memory. "This document sat in a drawer for decades," Carrington-Farmer said. "It could easily have been lost forever."

Instead, through coincidence, curiosity, and collaboration, Thomas White's story offers a rare glimpse into the past and a reminder of how many stories of courage and survival still lie hidden, waiting to be found.