It is no coincidence that life then mirrors the life of millions of illegal immigrants today. Undocumented workers, or hurtfully known as illegal immigrants, are not tied to physical chains; but instead to more vicious and stealthy economic ones. Wherever they walk, weather at at home or across an blurry border, they feel its weight. For them, "The world [is] divided into places where they cannot live and places into which they cannot enter".

"Triangle Trade / A Modern Tour of Providence" gently pieces together the lost snippets, or murmurs, that resonated in specific corners throughout Rhode Island's historic capital. It highlights three points that in turn directly tie into the slave trade; a church, a mansion, and a national park. All three, when combined, form a three pointed geometric shape on Providence's landscape, a triangle that explains the "notorious" trade routes of 1765 and one that would be accessible to pedestrians today. In less than a half an hour, anyone can experience this "Modern Tour of Providence". One can choose to walk it or experience it online, as a virtual tour similar to a Google Street View.

All three corners are selected for specific reasons. For instance, John Brown's mansion is the ideal location to highlight his mercantile lifestyle as a rich slave tradesman. Brown, a former United States House of Representative member and co-founder of Brown University, believed in slave importation and was once quoted to have said, "Had the negros been young and healthy I should have been able to sale them pretty well". This quote, therefore, was selected to go on the corner of Benefit and Brown Street where the mansion still sits today; and serves as a point of reference to shed light on the type of belief once socially acceptable.

A few minutes away on Congdon Street the second vertex can be found. This one references the ideals of Brown’s brother, Moses. He was a converted Quaker and the other co-founder of Brown University, and one who dissociated himself with the slave trade. Because of Moses’ religious qualities, the second quote rests against the walls of the Congdon Street Baptist Church, “the oldest historically Black Baptist church in the state”. E.B. Chace, an Underground Railroad aid, best exemplify what Moses would have considered to be of good moral character. Chace’s words, therefore, are selected as the “snippet” that speaks of the good nature of the religious beliefs, “No guests were ever more welcome than those who came in the darkness of night to escape from the human bloodhounds.” Chace, in my opinion, is in contemporary times, the American who opens his arms and embraces immigrants; someone that is willing to risk his own life to better the lives of others. John, on the other hand, is the anti-immigrant who quietly enjoys the benefits of cheap labor.

The last stop on this tour belongs to those who suffer the most, the slaves. Roger Williams National Park, again just a few minutes away from Congdon Street, “the site of the second major riot between Providence Afro-American residents and white workers”. It has been “speculated that Rhode Island’s reluctance to join the Union may have been due to the fact that illegal smuggling was especially important to its economic success.” Again, the slave serves a metaphor of today’s undocumented labor force. Harriet Tubman once explained her need to break out of her condition of a slave, “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” A concept too big to digest with one read. Therefore, this quote sits on a symbolic park corner. I recognize that through history human labels are peeled and reassigned; yesterday they were called slaves and today they are called illegal immigrants.

Similar to Steven Sora's conclusions, writer of "Secret Societies of American's Elite".