The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original Thirteen
Colonies established on the east coast of North America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean.
It was an English colony from 1636 until the American Revolution in 1776, when it became
the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known simply as Rhode Island).
== Early America ==
The land that became the English colony was first home to the Narragansett Indians, which
led to the name of the modern town of Narragansett, Rhode Island.
European settlement began around 1622 with a trading post at Sowams, now the town of
Warren, Rhode Island.
Roger Williams was a Puritan theologian and linguist who founded Providence Plantations
in 1636 on land given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus.
He was exiled under religious persecution from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; he and
his fellow settlers agreed on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule "in
civil things," with liberty of conscience on spiritual matters.
He named the settlement Providence Plantation, believing that God had brought them there.
(The term "plantation" was used in the 17th century as a synonym for "settlement" or "colony.")
Williams named the islands in the Narragansett Bay after Christian virtues: Patience, Prudence,
and Hope Islands.In 1637, another group of Massachusetts dissenters purchased land from
the Indians on Aquidneck Island, which was called Rhode Island at the time, and they
established a settlement called Pocasset.
The group included William Coddington, John Clarke, and Anne and William Hutchinson, among
others.
That settlement, however, quickly split into two separate settlements.
Samuel Gorton and others remained to establish the settlement of Portsmouth (which formerly
was Pocasset) in 1638, while Coddington and Clarke established nearby Newport in 1639.
Both settlements were situated on Rhode Island (Aquidneck).The second plantation settlement
on the mainland was Samuel Gorton's Shawomet Purchase from the Narragansetts in 1642.
As soon as Gorton settled at Shawomet, however, the Massachusetts Bay authorities laid claim
to his territory and acted to enforce their claim.
After considerable difficulties with the Massachusetts Bay General Court, Gorton traveled to London
to enlist the help of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, head of the Commission for Foreign
Plantations.
Gorton returned in 1648 with a letter from Rich, ordering Massachusetts to cease molesting
him and his people.
In gratitude, he changed the name of Shawomet Plantation to Warwick.
== Cromwell interregnum == In 1651, William Coddington obtained a separate
charter from England setting up the Coddington Commission, which made him life governor of
the islands of Rhode Island and Conanicut in a federation with Connecticut Colony and
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Protest, open rebellion, and a further petition to Oliver Cromwell in London led to the reinstatement
of the original charter in 1653.
== Sanctuary for religious freedom == Following the 1660 restoration of royal rule
in England, it was necessary to gain a Royal Charter from King Charles II.
Charles was a Catholic sympathizer in staunchly Protestant England, and he approved of the
colony's promise of religious freedom.
He granted the request with the Royal Charter of 1663, uniting the four settlements together
into the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
In the following years, many persecuted groups settled in the colony, notably Quakers and
Jews.
The Rhode Island colony was very progressive for the time, passing laws abolishing witchcraft
trials, imprisonment for debt, most capital punishment and, on May 18, 1652, chattel slavery
of both blacks and whites.Rhode Island remained at peace with local Indians, but the relationship
was more strained between other New England colonies and certain tribes and sometimes
led to bloodshed, despite attempts by the Rhode Island leadership to broker peace.
During King Philip's War (1675–1676), both sides regularly violated Rhode Island's neutrality.
The war's largest battle occurred in Rhode Island, when a force of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified
Narragansett village in the Great Swamp in southern Rhode Island, on December 19, 1675.
The Narragansetts also invaded and burned down several of the cities of Rhode Island,
including Providence.
Roger Williams knew both Metacom (English name Philip) and Canonchet as children.
He was aware of the tribe's movements and promptly sent letters informing the Governor
of Massachusetts of enemy movements.
By his prompt action, Providence Plantations made some efforts at fortifying the town,
and Williams even started training recruits for protection.
In one of the final actions of the war, troops from Connecticut hunted down and killed "King
Philip", as they called the Narragansett war leader Metacom, on Rhode Island's territory.
== Dominion of New England == In the 1680s, Charles II sought to streamline
administration of the English colonies and to more closely control their trade.
The Navigation Acts passed in the 1660s were widely disliked, since merchants often found
themselves trapped and at odds with the rules.
However, many colonial governments, Massachusetts principally among them, refused to enforce
the acts, and took matters one step further by obstructing the activities of the Crown
agents.
Charles' successor James II introduced the Dominion of New England in 1686 as a means
to accomplish these goals.
Under its provisional president Joseph Dudley, the disputed "King's Country" (present-day
Washington County) was brought into the dominion, and the rest of the colony was brought under
dominion control by Governor Sir Edmund Andros.
The rule of Andros was extremely unpopular, especially in Massachusetts.
The 1688 Glorious Revolution deposed James II and brought William III and Mary II to
the English throne; Massachusetts authorities conspired in April 1689 to have Andros arrested
and sent back to England.
With this event, the dominion collapsed and Rhode Island resumed its previous government.The
bedrock of the economy continued to be agriculture – especially dairy farming – and fishing;
lumber and shipbuilding also became major industries.
Slaves were introduced at this time, although there is no record of any law re-legalizing
slave holding.
Ironically, the colony later prospered under the slave trade, by distilling rum to sell
in Africa as part of a profitable triangular trade in slaves and sugar between Africa,
America, and the Caribbean.
== American Revolutionary period == Leading figures in the colony were involved
in the 1776 launch of the American Revolutionary War which delivered American independence
from the British Empire, such as former royal governors Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward,
as well as John Brown, Nicholas Brown, William Ellery, the Reverend James Manning, and the
Reverend Ezra Stiles, each of whom had played an influential role in founding Brown University
in Providence in 1764 as a sanctuary for religious and intellectual freedom.On May 4, 1776, Rhode
Island became the first of the 13 colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British
Crown, and was the fourth to ratify the Articles of Confederation between the newly sovereign
states on February 9, 1778.
It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution, and initially
refused to ratify it.
It relented after Congress sent a series of constitutional amendments to the states for
ratification, the Bill of Rights guaranteeing specific personal freedoms and rights; clear
limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings; and explicit declarations
that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved
for the states or the people.
On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th state and the last of the former colonies
to ratify the Constitution.
== See also ==
British America
== Notes ==
== References == Arnold, Samuel Greene (1859).
History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations vol 1 1636–1700.
Applewood Books.
James, Sydney V. Colonial Rhode Island: A History (1975.)
Labaree, Benjamin (1979).
Colonial Massachusetts: a History.
Millwood, NY: KTO Press.
ISBN 978-0-527-18714-9.
OCLC 248194957.
Lovejoy, David (1987).
The Glorious Revolution in America.
Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
ISBN 978-0-8195-6177-0.
OCLC 14212813.