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Rhode Island (IPA: /roʊd 'aɪlɪnd/), officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,[2] is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area. Rhode Island shares borders with Connecticut to the west, and Massachusetts to the north and east, as well as New York by sea to the southwest.
The state is called Rhode Island in common usage, but most of the state lies on the North American mainland. Providence Plantations refers to the mainland, while Rhode Island is actually the official name for Aquidneck Island (now composed of the city of Newport, and the towns of Middletown and Portsmouth).[3]
Having a history of staunch independence, Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen original American colonies to declare independence from British rule and the last to ratify the United States Constitution.
Rhode Island has long held the nickname of "Little Rhody", though
the state has officially adopted the nickname of "the Ocean State," as
nearly one tenth of Rhode Island's inland area is covered by salt
water, and no part of the state is more than a 30-minute drive from the
water's edge.[4]
Name origin
In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to visit any part of what is now Rhode Island. He came to what is now Block Island and named it "Luisa" after Louise of Savoy, Queen Mother of France. When the founders of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations surveyed the land, they thought that Aquidneck Island was the place. A mistake occurred in 1614, when Luisa was charted by the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, after whom Luisa was renamed by the Dutch West India Company; however, their motives in doing so are unknown.[5]
The official explanation by the State of Rhode Island is that Adriaen
Block named the area "Roodt Eylandt" meaning "red island" in reference
to the red clay that lined the shore, and that the name was later
anglicized when the region came under British rule.[6]
Geography
Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads
Block Island bluffs, Rhode Island
- Further information: List of Rhode Island counties
The smallest of the 50 states, Rhode Island covers an area of approximately 1,545 square miles (4,002 km²) and is bordered on the north and east by Massachusetts, on the west by Connecticut, and on the south by Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. It shares a water border with New York State between Block Island and Long Island. The mean elevation of the state is 200 feet (60 m).
Nicknamed the Ocean State, Rhode Island is home to a number of oceanfront beaches. Rhode Island is mostly flat with no real mountains. Rhode Island's highest natural point is Jerimoth Hill, only 812 feet (247 m) above sea level.[1]
Located within the New England province of the Appalachian Region, Rhode Island has two distinct natural regions. Eastern Rhode Island contains the lowlands of the Narragansett Bay,
while Western Rhode Island forms part of the New England Upland.
Narragansett Bay is a major feature of the state's topography. Block Island
lies approximately 12 miles (19 km) off the southern coast of the
mainland. Within the Bay, there are over 30 islands. The largest is Aquidneck Island, shared by the municipalities of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth. The second-largest island is Conanicut; the third-largest is Prudence.
A rare type of rock called Cumberlandite, found only in Rhode Island (specifically in the town of Cumberland),
is the state rock. There were initially two known deposits of the
mineral, but since it can be engineered into a form of gunpowder, one
of the deposits was almost completely mined in the American Civil War[citation needed].
Climate
Rhode Island is an example of a warm summer humid continental climate with hot, rainy summers and cold, snowy winters. The highest temperature recorded in Rhode Island was 105 °F (40 °C),
recorded on August 2, 1975 in Providence. The lowest temperature in
Rhode Island, -13 °F (-25 °C), was recorded on February 6, 1996 in Coventry. Monthly average temperatures range from a high of 82 °F (28 °C) to a low of 20 °F (-7 °C).[7]
History
-
Colonial Era
In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni de Verrazzano
traversed the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, searching for an
all-water route through North America to China. In March of that year,
he left what is now New York Harbor and headed east until he discovered
what was later called Block Island. Natives guided him into what is now
Newport Harbor. He remained for two weeks while his crew surveyed the
bay and the surrounding mainland. In early May 1524, Verrazzano
departed to renew his search for a Northwest Passage.
In 1614, the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block visited the island that is
now called Block Island. Native American inhabitants included the Narragansett tribe, occupying most of the area, and the closely related Niantic tribe. Most of the Native Americans were decimated by introduced diseases such as smallpox, intertribal warfare, and the disastrous King Philip's War, but remnants of the Niantic merged into the Narragansett tribe, where they remain on a federally recognized reservation.
In 1636, Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony
for his religious views, settled at the tip of Narragansett Bay. He
called the site Providence and declared it a place of religious freedom.
The following year, Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts for criticizing the clergy there. She and some others, including William Coddington and John Clark,
founded the town of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island. In 1639, Coddington
left Portsmouth and founded Newport, also on Aquidneck Island.
In that same year, a formal government was established for the island. William Coddington was the first governor, and Philip Sherman was the first secretary. In 1643, Samuel Gorton founded Shawomet, which is now called Warwick. In 1644, the name of Aquidneck Island was changed to Rhode Island.
John Clarke was granted a Charter in 1663 for Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, which effectively united the two colonies into
one. Under the terms of the charter, only landowners could vote. Before
the Industrial Revolution,
when most people were employed as farmers, this was considered
democratic. The original charter was used as the state constitution
until 1842.
The relationship between the New Englanders and the Native Americans
was strained, and caused some bloodshed. On December 19, 1675, colonist
militia from Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Rhode Island
massacred about 350 Narragansetts in the Battle of the Great Swamp[8] during King Philip's War. The largest tribes that lived near Rhode Island were the Wampanoag, Pequots, Narragansett, and Nipmuck. One native named Squanto,
from the Wampanoag tribe, stayed with the Pilgrims and taught them many
valuable skills needed to survive in the area. He also helped greatly
with the eventual peace between the colonists and the natives.
Roger Williams had kept the powerful Narragansetts on friendly terms with local white settlers. The Narragansetts were even persuaded to form an alliance with the English
in 1637, carrying out an attack that nearly extinguished the Pequots.
This peace did not last long, however, and by 1670, even the friendly
tribes who had greeted Williams and the Pilgrims became estranged from
the colonists, and conflicts erupted.
The most important and traumatic event in 17th century Rhode Island was King Philip's War, which occurred during 1675–1676. King Philip (also known as Metacomet) was the chief of the Wampanoag tribe. The settlers of Portsmouth had purchased their land from his father, Massasoit.
King Philip rebelled against the English. The first attacks were around
Narrangansett Bay, but spread throughout New England. The war
culminated in Rhode Island in the Great Swamp Fight,
where the colonial militia invaded and destroyed the Narragansett
Indian village in the Great Swamp in southern Rhode Island, by Worden's
Pond. Metacomet himself was eventually captured near Bristol, RI by agents working for Captain Benjamin Church. Metacomet was slain by his assailants.
Revolution and industrialization: 1770–1860
Rhode Island's tradition of independence and dissent gave it a
prominent role in the American Revolution. In 1772, the first bloodshed
of the American Revolution took place in Rhode Island when a band of
Providence residents attacked a grounded British ship for enforcing
unpopular British trade regulations. This incident would come to be
known as the Gaspee Affair.
Keeping with its culture of defiance, Rhode Island was the first of the
original thirteen colonies to declare its independence from Great Britain (May 4, 1776,[9])
and the last to ratify the Constitution, doing the latter only after
being threatened with having its exports taxed as a foreign nation.
During the Revolution, the British occupied Newport.
A combined Franco-American force fought to drive them off of 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 Battle of Rhode Island
August 29, 1778. The arrival of a far superior French fleet forced the
British to scuttle their own ships, rather than surrender them to the
French.
The Industrial Revolution began in America in 1789 when Moses Brown invested in a water-powered textile mill designed and run by Samuel Slater. As the Industrial Revolution
moved large numbers of workers into the cities, a permanently landless,
and therefore voteless, class developed. By 1829, 60% of the state's
free white males were ineligible to vote.
Several attempts had been made to address this problem, but none were successful. In 1842, Thomas Dorr drafted a liberal constitution which was passed by popular referendum. However, the conservative sitting governor, Samuel Ward King, opposed the people's wishes, leading to the Dorr Rebellion.
Although this was not a success, a modified version of the constitution
was passed in November, which allowed any white male to vote if he
owned land or could pay a $1 poll tax.
In addition to industrialization, Rhode Island was heavily involved in the slave trade during the post-revolution era. Slavery
was extant in the state as early as 1652, and by 1774, the slave
population of Rhode Island was 6.3%, nearly twice as high as any other
New England colony. In the late 18th century, several Rhode Island
merchant families began actively engaging in the triangle slave trade.
Notable among these was brothers John and Nicholas of the Brown family,
for whom Brown University is named, although some Browns, particularly
Moses, became prominent abolitionists. In the years after the
Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled between 60% and 90% of
the American trade in African slaves.[10][11]
Civil War to Progressive Era: 1860–1929
During the 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. On the home front,
Rhode Island, along with the other northern states, used its industrial
capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials it needed to win
the war. In addition, Newport was the temporary home of the United
States Naval Academy during the war.
Rhode Island's continued growth and modernization led to the creation
of an urban mass transit system and improved health and sanitation
programs. In 1866, Rhode Island abolished racial segregation throughout
the state.[12]
Post-war immigration increased the population. From the 1860s to the
1880s, most immigrants were from England, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and
Quebec. Toward the end of the century, however, most immigrants were
from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.[13]
At the turn of the century, Rhode Island had a booming economy, which
fed the demand for immigration. In the years leading up to World War I,
Rhode Island's constitution remained reactionary, in contrast to the
more progressive reforms that were occurring in the rest of the
country. The state never ratified the 18th Amendment establishing
national prohibition of alcohol.[14] During World War I, Rhode Island furnished 28,817 troops, of whom 612 d
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