Slavery is usually associated with the southern colonies, but early New England had many slaves as well. These andirons descended in the family of Rowland Robinson, who owned a plantation in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, on Narragansett Bay. According to family tradition, these andirons were made by a slave who had been trained as a blacksmith. Both functional and sculptural, the andirons represent the vast body of American art made by slaves, whose names and histories are not well documented.

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