Short answers, pulled from the story.
Roger Williams arrived in the area that would become Providence in June 1636. The settlement began as Rumford before moving down the Seekonk River to the confluence of the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers.
Providence passed an anti-slavery statute prohibiting indentured servitude beyond ten years in 1652. Enslaved people comprised eight percent of Providence's population by 1755, which exceeded the five percent average found across northern colonies.
The population dropped from 253,504 in 1940 to just 179,213 by 1970. White middle class families fled to suburbs faster than any American city except Detroit between the 1940s and 1970s.
Giant companies like Brown & Sharpe and Gorham Manufacturing Company established operations within city limits to manufacture steam engines, precision tools, silverware, screws, and textiles on a massive scale. Jewelry production emerged as a dominant industry with trade magazines calling it the jewelry capital of the world by the 1960s.
Hispanic communities grew dramatically reaching forty-three point five percent of total population in 2020. Dominicans formed the largest subgroup with roughly twenty-five thousand individuals representing half the city's Hispanic population.