Hard Scrabble (Addison Hollow) and Snow Town were two neighborhoods located in Providence, Rhode Island in the nineteenth century.

They were the sites of race riots in which working-class white residents[1] destroyed multiple black homes and businesses in 1824 and 1831, respectively.

Away from the town center, its inexpensive rents attracted working class free blacks, poor people of all races and marginalized businesses such as saloons and houses of prostitution.

[2][4] Hard Scrabble was one of several similar neighborhoods in urban centers in the Northeast where free blacks gathered to further themselves socially and economically.

Other African American communities created in cities with growing job markets in the same time period include the northern slope of Boston’s Beacon Hill, Little Liberia in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Sandy Ground on New York's Staten Island.

Of the at least 40 rioters present only 8 were identified charged for the crime: Oliver Cummins, Joseph Butler Jr., Nathaniel G. Metcalf, Amos Chaffee, John Sherman, Gilbert Humes, Arthur Farrier, James Gibbs, Ezra Hubbard, and William Taylor.

They argued that witness testimony was unreliable, that the defendants could not be tied to the scene of the crime, that the common law definition of a riot had been superseded by a stricter Rhode Island statute and thus did not apply, and that the destruction of Hard Scrabble had been a just and necessary endeavor.

In his closing arguments for the defense of Oliver Cummins, Tillinghast compared the riots to the destruction of Babylon in the Bible.

Evidence points to its location being where the Rhode Island State House is today, along both sides of Smith Street.

The riot started the night of September 21, when a group of five white sailors went looking for trouble around Olney's Lane.

The Governor and Sheriff determined that "nothing short of firing would produce any other effect than increased irritation and ferocity of the mob.

Upon learning that the prisoners had been released the majority of the crowd dispersed, some going to Snow Town to continue the last night's violence, though in the official report there is no note of what happened there.

[3] The militia was immediately called into action, accompanied by the Governor and the Sheriff, along with several other magistrates, taking position on the brow of Smith Hill.

The Sheriff gave an ultimatum: 5 minutes for the riot to disband or they would shoot, the safety of rioters and onlookers would not be guaranteed.

After trying everything short of firing into the crowd, the Sheriff called for the First Light Infantry and the Dragoons to push into the riot to disperse them but this too failed, and the Militia was forced to retreat back down Smith Street.

Most took a similar tact to the coverage of Hard Scrabble, decrying black residents, especially focusing on those who had shot at the 5 sailors on the first day of the riot.

[citation needed] In 2006, a memorial plaque was installed in a grass-covered traffic island at the corner of North Main and Canal Streets near the State House.

[10] Snow Town was located on Smith Hill where the State Capital and the Providence Train Station sit today.