Soul Value at Slater Mill

Spend Labor Day Weekend at Old Slater Mill. This year's opening program is the performance, Soul Value, which will include a performance, ranger talk, and Q&A session with the artists.

Soul Value is an inclusive historical storytelling experience that draws directly on bibliographies, written records, and court documents housed in colonial and state archives, transforming primary-source research into embodied performance narratives. By translating archival materials into monologue, dance, ritual, and song, Soul Value connects documented history to lived experience, making the past accessible and resonant for contemporary audiences.The work centers the impact of Black and Indigenous women in 18th-century New England—specifically Elleanor Eldridge, Elizabeth Freemen, and Margaret Kinnicutt—alongside the men of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, highlighting how Black residents of the region used both the law and creative strategies to demand recognition, autonomy, and equality. Their engagement with legal systems, contracts, petitions, and military service demonstrates how principles of independence and revolution were not abstract ideals but were actively tested and claimed by those excluded from full citizenship.

By recognizing 1700s residents who made significant contributions to freedom, equality, and independence through their research into, and strategic use of, the law,Soul Value’s innovative performance celebrates the 250th anniversary of the American Revolutionary era through rigorous historical research and creative interpretation that foreground New England’s role in shaping the ideals of freedom, equality, and independence.