Yankee Ingenuity Oral History Project (Mss. Gr. 31)

Historical Information

“Yankee Ingenuity: Can the Government it forged survive?” was a project sponsored by the Chariho Regional High School and the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, designed to create a dialogue on the relationship of the individual to the local government. Twenty longtime residents of three communities, Charlestown, Richmond, and Hopkinton, were interviewed by seven Chariho High School senior students who asked the interviewees questions covering the four broad areas of education, the town meeting, Yankee ingenuity, and the proposed Charlestown nuclear plant.

In the early 1970's, the New England Power Company proposed to build a nuclear power plant at the former Naval Air Station in Charlestown , Rhode Island . However, after a protracted legal dispute from local opposition groups, New England Power abandoned its plans and the Naval Air Station land was deeded to the town of Charlestown for use as a park and wildlife refuge.

The unique tradition of strong local government in rural New England historically has rested on the worth of the individual and his right to give consent. This government model, exemplified best by the town meeting tradition, survives to this day and was forged from the ingenuity of Yankee settlers as surely as were the stolid homes, rambling stone walls and rocky pasture which still grace our countryside.