Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay for thousands of years before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century.[10] Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government.[10] The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker "Rogue's Island".[11]
Rhode Island was the first colony to call for a Continental Congress, in 1774, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776.[12] After the American Revolution, during which it was heavily occupied and contested, Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, on February 9, 1778.[13] Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution,[14] which it initially refused to ratify;[15] it finally ratified it on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 states to do so.[16][17]
Rhode Island
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The state was officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since the colonial era but came to be commonly known as "Rhode Island". In November 2020, the state's voters approved an amendment to the state constitution formally dropping "and Providence Plantations" from its full name.[18] Its official nickname is the "Ocean State", a reference to its 400 mi (640 km) of coastline and the large bays and inlets that make up about 14% of its area.[19]
Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is on the U.S. mainland. Its official name was State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations from its beginning in 1636 until 2020, and it is referred to in that manner in the United States Constitution.[20] This name was derived from the merger of Colonial settlements around Narragansett Bay, and outside the jurisdiction of Plymouth colony. The settlements of Rhode Island (Newport and Portsmouth) were on Rhode Island, also known as Aquidneck Island.[b][21] Providence Plantations referred to settlements on the mainland of Providence and Warwick.[22]
The earliest documented use of the name "Rhode Island" for Aquidneck was in 1637 by Roger Williams. The name was officially applied to the island in 1644 with these words: "Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Isle of Rodes or Rhode-Island." The name "Isle of Rodes" is used in a legal document as late as 1646.[27][28] Dutch maps as early as 1659 call the island "Red Island" (Roodt Eylandt).[29]
The first English settlement in Rhode Island was the town of Providence, which the Narragansett granted to Roger Williams in 1636.[citation needed] At that time, Williams obtained no permission from the English crown, as he believed the English had no legitimate claim on Narragansett and Wampanoag territory.[30][verification needed] Williams traveled to London in 1643, during the English Civil War, to obtain legal recognition of the new settlements. A Patent was granted to "the incorporation of Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay in New England" by the Parliamentary committee on Foreign Plantations.[31] After the English Civil war, a Royal Charter was granted in 1663, giving the colony an official name of the "Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America."[32] Following the American Revolution, in 1790 the new state incorporated as the "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". However, as matter of convenience, the state came to be commonly known as simply "Rhode Island".
The word plantation in the state's name became a contested issue during the 20th century and the increased awareness of slavery and its role in early Rhode Island history. The General Assembly voted in 2009 to hold a referendum in November 2010 on removing "and Providence Plantations" from the official name. Advocates for excising plantation argued that the word symbolized a legacy of disenfranchisement for many Rhode Islanders, as well as the proliferation of slavery in the colonies and in the post-colonial United States. Advocates for retaining the name argued that plantation was simply an archaic synonym for colony and bore no relation to slavery. The people voted overwhelmingly (78% to 22%) to retain the entire original name.[33]
In 1636, Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, and he settled at the top of Narragansett Bay on land sold or given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus. He named the site Providence, "having a sense of God's merciful providence unto me in my distress",[39] and it became a place of religious freedom where all were welcome.
Samuel Gorton purchased lands at Shawomet in 1642 from the Narragansetts, precipitating a dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1644, Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport united for their common independence as the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, governed by an elected council and "president". Gorton received a separate charter for his settlement in 1648 which he named Warwick after his patron.[41]
The colony was amalgamated into the Dominion of New England in 1686, as King James II attempted to enforce royal authority over the autonomous colonies in British North America, but the colony regained its independence under the Royal Charter after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Slaves were introduced in Rhode Island at this time, although there is no record of any law legalizing slave-holding. The colony later prospered under the slave trade, distilling rum to sell in Africa as part of a profitable triangular trade in slaves and sugar with the Caribbean.[45] Rhode Island's legislative body passed an act in 1652 abolishing the holding of slaves (the first British colony to do so), but this edict was never enforced and Rhode Island continued to be heavily involved in the slave trade during the post-revolution era.[46] In 1774, the slave population of Rhode Island was 6.3% of the total (nearly twice the ratio of other New England colonies).[47][48]
Brown University was founded in 1764 as the College in the British Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It was one of nine Colonial colleges granted charters before the American Revolution and was the first college in America to accept students regardless of religious affiliation.[49]
Rhode Island's tradition of independence and dissent gave it a prominent role in the American Revolution. At approximately 2 a.m. on June 10, 1772, a band of Providence residents attacked the grounded revenue schooner HMS Gaspe, burning it to the waterline for enforcing unpopular trade regulations within Narragansett Bay.[50] Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown on May 4, 1776.[51] It was also the last of the thirteen colonies to ratify the United States Constitution on May 29, 1790, and only under threat of heavy trade tariffs from the other former colonies and after assurances were made that a Bill of Rights would become part of the Constitution.[52]
During the Revolution, the British occupied Newport in December 1776. A combined Franco-American force fought to drive them off Aquidneck Island. Portsmouth was the site of the first African-American military unit, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, to fight for the U.S. in the unsuccessful Battle of Rhode Island of August 29, 1778.[53] A month earlier, the appearance of a French fleet off Newport caused the British to scuttle some of their own ships in an attempt to block the harbor. The British abandoned Newport in October 1779, concentrating their forces in New York City. An expedition of 5,500 French troops under Count Rochambeau arrived in Newport by sea on July 10, 1780.[54] The celebrated march to Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781 ended with the defeat of the British at the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake.
Rhode Island was also heavily involved in the Industrial Revolution, which began in America in 1787 when Thomas Somers reproduced textile machine plans which he imported from England. He helped to produce the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, in which Moses Brown of Providence took an interest. Moses Brown teamed up with Samuel Slater and helped to create the second cotton mill in America, a water-powered textile mill. The Industrial Revolution moved large numbers of workers into the cities. With the 1663 colonial charter still in effect, voting was restricted to landowners holding at least $134 in property. At the time of the revolution, 80% of White men in Rhode Island could vote; by 1840, only 40% were still eligible.[55] The charter apportioned legislative seats equally among the state's towns, over-representing rural areas and under-representing the growing industrial centers. Additionally, the charter disallowed landless citizens from filing civil suits without endorsement from a landowner.[56] Bills were periodically introduced in the legislature to expand suffrage, but they were invariably defeated.
In 1841, activists led by Thomas W. Dorr organized an extralegal convention to draft a state constitution,[57] arguing the charter government violated the Guarantee Clause in Article Four, Section Four of the United States Constitution. In 1842, the charter government and Dorr's supporters held separate elections, and two rival governments claimed sovereignty over the state. Dorr's supporters led an armed rebellion against the charter government, and Dorr was arrested and imprisoned for treason against the state.[58]
During the American Civil War, Rhode Island was the first Union state to send troops in response to President Lincoln's request for help from the states. Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men, of whom 1,685 died.[citation needed] On the home front, Rhode Island and the other northern states used their industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials it needed to win the war. The United States Naval Academy moved to Rhode Island temporarily during the war. 152ee80cbc
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