Kingston Pease (sometimes spelled Pees, Peas, or Peares), was a property owner and prominent member of the free Black community of 18th-century Newport, Rhode Island.
Pease attended a March meeting, and, according to the clerk, "did not appear in any Shape to be convinced of any Error in keeping Company with a White Girl, & wanting to Marry her; Moreover he seem'd rather to blame his Brethren than himself."
About eighteen months later, in October 1782, it had become clear to the church members that Pease had not ended his relationship with the "White Woman" now identified as Anne Mackumber, who was now pregnant, indicating his earlier confession had not been genuine.
The church moved quickly to excommunicate him, writing "Our Black Brother, Kingston Pees, Appeared and did not Deny the Accusation brought against him, respecting Ann Mackumber, A White Woman being with Child by him."
Founding chapters in both Newport and Providence, the organization played an essential role in the survival and continuity of Rhode Island's free Black community, quickly becoming its public voice.
"[3] While he made arrangements for he and his family to relocate, the Union helped him to conduct his business, collecting rent on the property he owned in Newport.
In 1791, the Free African Union Society wrote Pease to tell him that his son, Arthur, still residing in Newport, was "very sick ... and said to be in a poor, distressed Condition, almost destitute of the Necessarys of Life.
"[2] An 1800 census of New York listed Kingston Pease as a free Black Head of Household in the Fifth Ward, probably at 8 Fayette Street in Brooklyn.