Conclusion: Looking to the Future

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument is no doubt an important historical monument that began the critical process of adding Black figures into the memoryscape of monuments. Over three hundred colored men of Rhode Island died to attain freedom and opportunity for themselves and their people, a sacrifice that should be remembered. However, as the decades have come and gone, the modes taken to represent such men now seem questionable. Our Black allegorical sister may not be chained, but she is depicted and consumed in a way that still puts her in a lesser position. Perhaps decades from now, when Black women’s bodies cease to be hypersexualized and exploited, this monument can be seen for what it was meant to be: a step forward.