word meaning rhode island

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word meaning rhode island
word meaning rhode island

Copy Right By 2016 – 1395

USGS topographic map of Rhode Island; public domain image on Wikipedia.

The first mention of Rhode Island in writing (“isola di Rhode”) was made by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 (he refers to an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay which he compares to the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean). Some attribute the name to Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who called it “Roodt Eylandt,” meaning “red island” (again because its red clay is similar to the Greek island of Rhodes). All State Name Origins

The first official reference to the island by the English is in these words “Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Ile of Rods or Rhod-Island.” The earliest recorded English colonist text (by Roger Williams) refers to it as “Ilande of the Rodes” (without the “h”).

The name “Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” was adopted in the Royal Charter granted by King Charles I of England in 1633 (the complete name appears on Rhode Island’s state seal; “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”).

State of Rhode Island USA; image by Concord hioz on Wikipedia (use permitted with attribution / share alike; CC BY-SA 3.0).word meaning rhode island

Rhode Island, USA (public domain image).

Representation of the state seal at Rhode Island State House; photo by Martin Kalfatovic on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / share alike).

 

 

 

© State Symbols USA

var pbHdSlots = [
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bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776160’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_Billboard’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654157’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195466’, size: [728, 90] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971080’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346693’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_topslot_728x90’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_topslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_topslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_leftslot’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_leftslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/leftslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[120, 600], [160, 600], [300, 600]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776140’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_SR’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654149’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195464’, size: [120, 600] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195464’, size: [160, 600] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195464’, size: [300, 600] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971066’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346698’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_leftslot_160x600’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_leftslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_leftslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_rightslot’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_rightslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/rightslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776156’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_SR’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654156’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195465’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971079’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘387232’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_rightslot_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_rightslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_rightslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_btmslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_btmslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/btmslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776130’, position: ‘btf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_MidArticle’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11653860’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘194852’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971063’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346688’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_btmslot_300x250’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }}]}];
var pbDesktopSlots = [
{code: ‘ad_topslot_b’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_topslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/topslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[728, 90]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776160’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_Billboard’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654157’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195466’, size: [728, 90] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971080’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346693’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_topslot_728x90’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_topslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_topslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_leftslot’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_leftslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/leftslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[120, 600], [160, 600]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776140’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_SR’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654149’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195464’, size: [120, 600] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195464’, size: [160, 600] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971066’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346698’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_leftslot_160x600’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_leftslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_leftslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_rightslot’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_rightslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/rightslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776156’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_SR’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654156’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195465’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971079’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘387232’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_rightslot_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_rightslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_rightslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_btmslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_btmslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/btmslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776130’, position: ‘btf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_MidArticle’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11653860’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘194852’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971063’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346688’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_btmslot_300x250’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }}]}];
var pbTabletSlots = [
{code: ‘ad_topslot_b’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_topslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/topslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[728, 90]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776160’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_Billboard’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654157’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195466’, size: [728, 90] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971080’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346693’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_topslot_728x90’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_topslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_topslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_rightslot’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_rightslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/rightslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776156’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_SR’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654156’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195465’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971079’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘387232’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_rightslot_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_rightslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_rightslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_btmslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_btmslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/btmslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162036’, zoneId: ‘776130’, position: ‘btf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_MidArticle’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11653860’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘194852’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971063’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘346688’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b’, pos: ‘cdo_btmslot_300x250’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }}]}];
var pbMobileHrSlots = [
{code: ‘ad_topslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_topslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/topslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162050’, zoneId: ‘776358’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_HDX’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654208’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195467’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971081’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘387233’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007’, pos: ‘cdo_topslot_mobile_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_topslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_topslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_btmslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_btmslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/btmslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250], [320, 50], [300, 50]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162050’, zoneId: ‘776336’, position: ‘btf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_MidArticle’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654174’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195451’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195451’, size: [320, 50] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195451’, size: [300, 50] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971065’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘446381’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘446382’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007’, pos: ‘cdo_btmslot_mobile_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }}]}];
var pbMobileLrSlots = [
{code: ‘ad_topslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_topslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/topslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 50], [320, 50], [320, 100]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162050’, zoneId: ‘776358’, position: ‘atf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_HDX’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654208’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195467’, size: [300, 50] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195467’, size: [320, 50] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195467’, size: [320, 100] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971081’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘387233’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007’, pos: ‘cdo_topslot_mobile_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_topslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_topslot’ }}]},
{code: ‘ad_btmslot_a’, pubstack: { adUnitName: ‘cdo_btmslot’, adUnitPath: ‘/2863368/btmslot’ }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250], [320, 50], [300, 50]] } },
bids: [{ bidder: ‘rubicon’, params: { accountId: ‘17282’, siteId: ‘162050’, zoneId: ‘776336’, position: ‘btf’ }},
{ bidder: ‘triplelift’, params: { inventoryCode: ‘Cambridge_MidArticle’ }},
{ bidder: ‘appnexus’, params: { placementId: ‘11654174’ }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195451’, size: [300, 250] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195451’, size: [320, 50] }},
{ bidder: ‘ix’, params: { siteId: ‘195451’, size: [300, 50] }},
{ bidder: ‘openx’, params: { unit: ‘539971065’, delDomain: ‘idm-d.openx.net’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘446381’ }},
{ bidder: ‘sovrn’, params: { tagid: ‘446382’ }},
{ bidder: ‘onemobile’, params: { dcn: ‘8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007’, pos: ‘cdo_btmslot_mobile_flex’ }},
{ bidder: ‘criteo’, params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }},
{ bidder: ‘pubmatic’, params: { publisherId: ‘158679’, adSlot: ‘cdo_btmslot’ }}]}];
var pbjs = pbjs || {};
pbjs.que = pbjs.que || [];

const customGranularity = {
‘buckets’: [{
‘min’: 0,
‘max’: 3,
‘increment’: 0.01,
‘cap’: true
},{
‘min’: 3.05,
‘max’: 8,
‘increment’: 0.05,
‘cap’: true
},{
‘min’: 8.50,
‘max’: 30,
‘increment’: 0.5,
‘cap’: true
},{
‘min’: 31,
‘max’: 36,
‘increment’: 1,
‘cap’: true
}]
};
pbjsCfg = {
userSync: {
userIds: [{
name: “unifiedId”,
params: {
partner: “uarus31”
},
storage: {
type: “cookie”,
name: “pbjs-unifiedid”,
expires: 60
}
},{
name: “identityLink”,
params: {
pid: ’94’
},
storage: {
type: “html5”,
name: “idl_env”,
expires: 365
}
},{
name: “pubCommonId”,
storage: {
type: “html5”,
name: “_pubcid”,
expires: 365
}
}],
syncDelay: 3000
},
priceGranularity: customGranularity,
enableSendAllBids: false,
bidderSequence: “fixed”
};
pbjsCfg.consentManagement = {
gdpr: {
cmpApi: ‘iab’,
timeout: 8000,
defaultGdprScope: true
}
};
pbjs.que.push(function() {
pbjs.setConfig(pbjsCfg);
});

var pbAdUnits = getPrebidSlots(curResolution);
var googletag = googletag || {};
googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || [];
googletag.cmd.push(function() {
googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad();
});
if(window.__tcfapi)
{
window.__tcfapi(‘addEventListener’, 2, function(tcData, success) {
if(success
addPrebidAdUnits(pbAdUnits);

window.__tcfapi(‘removeEventListener’, 2, function(success){
iasLog(“__tcfapi removeEventListener”, success);
}, tcData.listenerId);
}
});
}

var dfpSlots = {};

googletag.cmd.push(function() {
var mapping_topslot_a = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([746, 0], []).addSize([0, 550], [[300, 250]]).addSize([0, 0], [[300, 50], [320, 50], [320, 100]]).build();
dfpSlots[‘topslot_a’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/topslot’, [], ‘ad_topslot_a’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_topslot_a).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘top’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘center’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
var mapping_topslot_b = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([746, 0], [[728, 90]]).addSize([0, 0], []).build();
dfpSlots[‘topslot_b’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/topslot’, [[728, 90]], ‘ad_topslot_b’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_topslot_b).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘top’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘center’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
var mapping_leftslot = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([1063, 0], [[120, 600], [160, 600], [300, 600]]).addSize([963, 0], [[120, 600], [160, 600]]).addSize([0, 0], []).build();
dfpSlots[‘leftslot’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/leftslot’, [[120, 600], [160, 600]], ‘ad_leftslot’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_leftslot).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘top’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘left’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
var mapping_rightslot = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([746, 0], [[300, 250]]).addSize([0, 0], []).build();
dfpSlots[‘rightslot’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/rightslot’, [[300, 250]], ‘ad_rightslot’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_rightslot).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘mid’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘right’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
var mapping_houseslot_a = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([963, 0], [300, 250]).addSize([0, 0], []).build();
dfpSlots[‘houseslot_a’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/houseslot’, [300, 250], ‘ad_houseslot_a’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_houseslot_a).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘mid’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘right’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
var mapping_houseslot_b = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([963, 0], []).addSize([0, 0], [300, 250]).build();
dfpSlots[‘houseslot_b’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/houseslot’, [], ‘ad_houseslot_b’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_houseslot_b).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘btm’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘center’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
var mapping_btmslot_a = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([746, 0], [[300, 250], ‘fluid’]).addSize([0, 0], [[300, 250], [320, 50], [300, 50], ‘fluid’]).build();
dfpSlots[‘btmslot_a’] = googletag.defineSlot(‘/2863368/btmslot’, [[300, 250], ‘fluid’], ‘ad_btmslot_a’).defineSizeMapping(mapping_btmslot_a).setTargeting(‘sri’, ‘0’).setTargeting(‘vp’, ‘btm’).setTargeting(‘hp’, ‘center’).setTargeting(‘ad_group’, Adomik.randomAdGroup()).addService(googletag.pubads());
googletag.pubads().addEventListener(‘slotRenderEnded’, function(event) { if (!event.isEmpty } });

googletag.pubads().setTargeting(‘ad_h’, Adomik.hour);

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State in the northeastern United States; one of the New England states. Bordered by Massachusetts to the north and east, the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and Connecticut to the west. Its capital and largest city is Providence.

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Coordinates: 41°42′N 71°30′W / 41.7°N 71.5°W / 41.7; -71.5

Rhode Island (/ˌroʊd -/ (listen), like road),[6][7] officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,[8] is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh least populous, but it is also the second most densely populated. The state takes its short name from Rhode Island; however, most of the state is located on the mainland. The state has land borders with Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. It also shares a small maritime border with New York.[9]Providence is the state capital and most populous city in Rhode Island.

On May 4, 1776, the Colony of Rhode Island was the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown,[10] and it was the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, doing so on February 9, 1778.[11] The state boycotted the 1787 convention which drew up the United States Constitution[12] and initially refused to ratify it;[13] it was the last of the original 13 states to do so on May 29, 1790.[14][15]

Rhode Island’s official nickname is “The Ocean State”, a reference to the large bays and inlets that amount to about 14 percent of its total area.[2]

Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is located on the mainland of the United States. Its official name is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is derived from the merger of four Colonial settlements. The settlements of Newport and Portsmouth were situated on what is commonly called Aquidneck Island today but was called Rhode Island in Colonial times.[16][17]Providence Plantation was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the state’s capital of Providence.[18] This was adjoined by the settlement of Warwick; hence the plural Providence Plantations.
word meaning rhode island

It is unclear how the island came to be named Rhode Island, but two historical events may have been of influence:

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.[24][25] Dutch maps as early as 1659 call the island “Red Island” (Roodt Eylant).

The first English settlement in Rhode Island was the town of Providence, which the Narragansett granted to Roger Williams in 1636. At that time, Williams obtained no permission from the English crown, as he believed that the English had no legitimate claim on Narragansett and Wampanoag territory. However, in 1643, he petitioned Charles I of England to grant Providence and neighboring towns a colonial patent, due to threats of invasion from the colonies of Boston and Plymouth.[26] He used the name “Providence Plantations” in his petition, plantation being the English term for a colony. “Providence Plantations” was therefore the official name of the colony from 1643 to 1663, when a new charter was issued.[27] Following the American Revolution, the new state incorporated both “Rhode Island” and “Providence Plantations” in its official name. The word plantation in the state’s name has become a contested issue, and the Rhode Island General Assembly voted on June 25, 2009, to hold a general referendum determining whether “and Providence Plantations” would be dropped from the official name.

Advocates for excising plantation claimed that the word symbolized an alleged 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 referendum election was held on November 2, 2010, and the people voted overwhelmingly (78% to 22%) to retain the entire original name.[28]

On June 18, 2020, State Senator Harold Metts sponsored a motion in the State for another ballot referendum on removing the words “and Providence Plantations” from the state’s name. The motion was passed unanimously amidst the George Floyd protests and nationwide calls to address systemic racism. Metts said, “Whatever the meaning of the term ‘plantations’ in the context of Rhode Island’s history, it carries a horrific connotation when considering the tragic and racist history of our nation.” The resolution’s companion legislation was voted on and passed 69-1 in the state House of Representatives on July 16, 2020, and the question will be decided as part of the 2020 United States elections.[29] On June 22, 2020, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo issued an executive order to remove “Providence Plantations” from a range of official documents and state websites.[30]

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”,[31] and it became a place of religious freedom where all were welcome.

In 1638 (after conferring with Williams), Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington, John Clarke, Philip Sherman, and other religious dissenters settled on Aquidneck Island (then known as Rhode Island), which was purchased from the local tribes who called it Pocasset. This settlement was called Portsmouth and was governed by the Portsmouth Compact. The southern part of the island became the separate settlement of Newport after disagreements among the founders.

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.[32]

Metacomet was the Wampanoag tribe’s war leader, whom the colonists called King Philip. They invaded and burned down several of the towns in the area during King Philip’s War (1675–1676), including Providence which was attacked twice.[31] A force of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified Narragansett Indian village in the Great Swamp in South Kingstown, Rhode Island on December 19, 1675.[33] In one of the final actions of the war, an Indian associated with Benjamin Church killed King Philip in Bristol, Rhode Island.[34]

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.[35] 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.[36] In 1774, the slave population of Rhode Island was 6.3% of the total (nearly twice the ratio of other New England colonies).[37][38]

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, but was the first college in America to accept students regardless of religious affiliation.[39]

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 Gaspee, burning it to the waterline for enforcing unpopular trade regulations within Narragansett Bay.[40] Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown on May 4, 1776.[41] 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.[42] 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.[43] 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.[44] 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, creating a permanently landless class who were therefore, by the law of the time, also voteless. By 1829, 60% of the state’s free white males were ineligible to vote. Several attempts were unsuccessfully made to address this problem, and a new state constitution was passed in 1843 allowing landless men to vote if they could pay a $1 poll tax.

For the first several decades of statehood, Rhode Island was governed in accordance with the 1663 colonial charter. Voting rights were restricted to landowners holding at least $134 in property, disenfranchising well over half of the state’s male citizens. 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.[45] 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,[46] arguing that 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.[47] Later that year, the legislature drafted a state constitution, removing property requirements for American-born citizens but keeping them in place for immigrants, and retaining urban under-representation in the legislature.[48]

In the early 19th century, Rhode Island was subject to a tuberculosis outbreak which led to public hysteria about vampirism.

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 that it needed to win the war. The United States Naval Academy moved to Rhode Island temporarily during the war.

In 1866, Rhode Island abolished racial segregation in the public schools throughout the state.[49]

The 50 years following the Civil War were a time of prosperity and affluence that author William G. McLoughlin calls “Rhode Island’s halcyon era.” Rhode Island was a center of the Gilded Age and provided a home or summer home to many of the country’s most prominent industrialists. This was a time of growth in textile mills and manufacturing and brought an influx of immigrants to fill those jobs, bringing population growth and urbanization. In Newport, New York’s wealthiest industrialists created a summer haven to socialize and build grand mansions. Thousands of French-Canadian, Italian, Irish, and Portuguese immigrants arrived to fill jobs in the textile and manufacturing mills in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket.[50]

During World War I, Rhode Island furnished 28,817 soldiers, of whom 612 died. After the war, the state was hit hard by the Spanish Influenza.[51]

In the 1920s and 1930s, rural Rhode Island saw a surge in Ku Klux Klan membership, largely in reaction to large waves of immigrants moving to the state. The Klan is believed to be responsible for burning the Watchman Industrial School in Scituate, which was a school for African-American children.[52]

Since the Great Depression, the Rhode Island Democratic Party has dominated local politics. Rhode Island has comprehensive health insurance for low-income children and a large social safety net. Many urban areas still have a high rate of children in poverty. Due to an influx of residents from Boston, increasing housing costs have resulted in more homelessness in Rhode Island.[53]

The 350th Anniversary of the founding of Rhode Island was celebrated with a free concert held on the tarmac of the Quonset State Airport on August 31, 1986. Performers included Chuck Berry, Tommy James, and headliner Bob Hope.

In 2003, a nightclub fire in West Warwick claimed 100 lives and resulted in nearly twice as many injured, catching national attention. The fire resulted in criminal sentences.[54]

In March 2010, areas of the state received record flooding due to rising rivers from heavy rain. The first period of rainy weather in mid-March caused localized flooding and, two weeks later, more rain caused more widespread flooding in many towns, especially south of Providence. Rain totals on March 29–30, 2010 exceeded 14 inches (35.5 cm) in many locales, resulting in the inundation of area rivers—especially the Pawtuxet River which runs through central Rhode Island. The overflow of the Pawtuxet River, nearly 11 feet (3 m) above flood stage, submerged a sewage treatment plant and closed a five-mile (8 km) stretch of Interstate 95. In addition, it flooded two shopping malls, numerous businesses, and many homes in the towns of Warwick, West Warwick, Cranston, and Westerly. Amtrak service was also suspended between New York and Boston during this period. Following the flood, Rhode Island was in a state of emergency for two days. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was called in to help flood victims.

Rhode Island covers an area of 1,214 square miles (3,144 km2) located within the New England region 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.[2] It shares a narrow maritime border with New York State between Block Island and Long Island. The mean elevation of the state is 200 feet (61 m). It is only 37 miles (60 km) wide and 48 miles (77 km) long, yet the state has a tidal shoreline on Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean of 384 miles (618 km).[55]

Rhode Island is nicknamed the Ocean State and has a number of oceanfront beaches. It is mostly flat with no real mountains, and the state’s highest natural point is Jerimoth Hill, 812 feet (247 m) above sea level.[56] The state 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. Rhode Island’s forests are part of the Northeastern coastal forests ecoregion.[57]

Narragansett Bay is a major feature of the state’s topography. There are more than 30 islands within the bay; the largest is Aquidneck Island which holds the municipalities of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth. The second-largest island is Conanicut, and the third is Prudence. Block Island lies about 12 miles (19 km) off the southern coast of the mainland and separates Block Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean proper.[58][59]

A rare type of rock called Cumberlandite is found only in Rhode Island (specifically, in the town of Cumberland) and is the state rock. There were initially two known deposits of the mineral, but it is an ore of iron, and one of the deposits was extensively mined for its ferrous content.[60][61]

Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads

Shoreline in Newport, Rhode Island

Ninigret Pond National Wildlife Refuge, Rhode Island

Most of Rhode Island has a humid continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. The southern coastal portions of the state are the broad transition zone into subtropical climates, with hot summers and cool winters with a mix of rain and snow. Block Island has an oceanic climate. The highest temperature recorded in Rhode Island was 104 °F (40 °C), recorded on August 2, 1975 in Providence.[62] The lowest recorded temperature in Rhode Island was −23 °F (−31 °C) on February 5, 1996 in Greene.[63] Monthly average temperatures range from a high of 83 °F (28 °C) to a low of 20 °F (−7 °C).[64]

Rhode Island is vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes due to its location in New England, catching the brunt of many storms blowing up the eastern seaboard. Some hurricanes that have done significant damage in the state are the 1938 New England hurricane, Hurricane Carol (1954), Hurricane Donna (1960), and Hurricane Bob (1991).

The capital of Rhode Island is Providence. The state’s current governor is Gina Raimondo (D), and the lieutenant governor is Daniel McKee (D). Raimondo became Rhode Island’s first female governor with a plurality of the vote in the November 2014 state elections.[66] Its United States senators are Jack Reed (D) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D). Rhode Island’s two United States representatives are David Cicilline (D-1) and Jim Langevin (D-2). See congressional districts map. Rhode Island is one of a few states that do not have an official governor’s residence. See List of Rhode Island Governors.

The state legislature is the Rhode Island General Assembly, consisting of the 75-member House of Representatives and the 38-member Senate. Both houses of the bicameral body are currently dominated by the Democratic Party; the presence of the Republican Party is minor in the state government, with Republicans holding a handful of seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
word meaning rhode island

Rhode Island’s population barely crosses the threshold beyond the minimum of three for additional votes in both the federal House of Representatives and Electoral College; it is well represented relative to its population, with the eighth-highest number of electoral votes and second-highest number of House Representatives per resident. Based on its area, Rhode Island even has the highest density of electoral votes.[67]

Federally, Rhode Island is a reliably Democratic state during presidential elections, usually supporting the Democratic presidential nominee. The state voted for the Republican presidential candidate until 1908. Since then, it has voted for the Republican nominee for president seven times, and the Democratic nominee 17 times. The last 16 presidential elections in Rhode Island have resulted in the Democratic Party winning the Ocean State’s Electoral College votes 12 times. In the 1980 presidential election, Rhode Island was one of six states to vote against Republican Ronald Reagan. Reagan was the last Republican to win any of the state’s counties in a Presidential election until Donald Trump won Kent County in 2016. In 1988, George H. W. Bush won over 40% of the state’s popular vote, something that no Republican has done since.

Rhode Island was the Democrats’ leading state in 1988 and 2000, and second-best in 1968, 1996, and 2004. Rhode Island’s most one-sided Presidential election result was in 1964, with over 80% of Rhode Island’s votes going for Lyndon B. Johnson. In 2004, Rhode Island gave John Kerry more than a 20-percentage-point margin of victory (the third-highest of any state), with 59.4% of its vote. All but three of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns voted for the Democratic candidate. The exceptions were East Greenwich, West Greenwich, and Scituate.[70] In 2008, Rhode Island gave Barack Obama a 28-percentage-point margin of victory (the third-highest of any state), with 63% of its vote. All but one of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns voted for the Democratic candidate (the exception being Scituate).[71]

Rhode Island is one of 21 states that have abolished capital punishment; it was second do so, just after Michigan, and carried out its last execution in the 1840s. Rhode Island was the second to last state to make prostitution illegal. Until November 2009 Rhode Island law made prostitution legal provided it took place indoors.[72] In a 2009 study Rhode Island was listed as the 9th safest state in the country.[73]

In 2011, Rhode Island became the third state in the United States to pass legislation to allow the use of medical marijuana. Additionally, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed civil unions, and it was signed into law by Governor Lincoln Chafee on July 2, 2011. Rhode Island became the eighth state to fully recognize either same-sex marriage or civil unions.[74] Same-sex marriage became legal on May 2, 2013, and took effect August 1.[75]

Rhode Island has some of the highest taxes in the country, particularly its property taxes, ranking seventh in local and state taxes, and sixth in real estate taxes.[76]

The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Rhode Island was 1,059,361 on July 1, 2019, a 0.65% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[78] The center of population of Rhode Island is located in Providence County, in the city of Cranston.[79] A corridor of population can be seen from the Providence area, stretching northwest following the Blackstone River to Woonsocket, where 19th-century mills drove industry and development.

According to the 2010 Census, 81.4% of the population was White (76.4% non-Hispanic white), 5.7% was Black or African American, 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.9% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 3.3% from two or more races. 12.4% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race).[80]

Of the people residing in Rhode Island, 58.7% were born in Rhode Island, 26.6% were born in a different state, 2.0% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas or born abroad to American parent(s), and 12.6% were foreign born.[84]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2015[update], Rhode Island had an estimated population of 1,056,298, which is an increase of 1,125, or 0.10%, from the prior year and an increase of 3,731, or 0.35%, since the year 2010. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 15,220 people (that is 66,973 births minus 51,753 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 14,001 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 18,965 people, and migration within the country produced a net decrease of 4,964 people.

Hispanics in the state make up 12.8% of the population, predominantly Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Guatemalan populations.[85]

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 84% of the population aged 5 and older spoke only American English, while 8.07% spoke Spanish at home, 3.80% Portuguese, 1.96% French, 1.39% Italian and 0.78% speak other languages at home accordingly.[86]

The state’s most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 96.1% in 1970 to 76.5% in 2011.[87][88] In 2011, 40.3% of Rhode Island’s children under the age of one belonged to racial or ethnic minority groups, meaning that they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white.[89]

6.1% of Rhode Island’s population were reported as under 5, 23.6% under 18, and 14.5% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 52% of the population.

According to the 2010–2015 American Community Survey, the largest ancestry groups were Irish (18.3%), Italian (18.0%), English (10.5%), French (10.4%), and Portuguese (9.3%).[90]

Rhode Island has a higher percentage of Americans of Portuguese ancestry, including Portuguese Americans and Cape Verdean Americans than any other state in the nation. Additionally, the state also has the highest percentage of Liberian immigrants, with more than 15,000 residing in the state.[91] Italian Americans make up a plurality in central and southern Providence County and French-Canadian Americans form a large part of northern Providence County. Irish Americans have a strong presence in Newport and Kent counties. Americans of English ancestry still have a presence in the state as well, especially in Washington County, and are often referred to as “Swamp Yankees.” African immigrants, including Cape Verdean Americans, Liberian Americans, Nigerian Americans and Ghanaian Americans, form significant and growing communities in Rhode Island.

Although Rhode Island has the smallest land area of all 50 states, it has the second highest population density of any state in the Union, second to that of New Jersey.

A Pew survey of Rhode Island residents’ religious self-identification showed the following distribution of affiliations: Roman Catholic 42%, Protestant 30%, Jewish 1%, Jehovah’s Witnesses 2%, Buddhism 1%, Mormonism 1%, Hinduism 1%, and Non-religious 20%.[98] The largest denominations are the Roman Catholic Church with 456,598 adherents, the Episcopal Church with 19,377, the American Baptist Churches USA with 15,220, and the United Methodist Church with 6,901 adherents.[100]

Rhode Island has the highest proportion of Roman Catholic residents of any state,[101] mainly due to large Irish, Italian, and French-Canadian immigration in the past; recently, significant Portuguese and various Hispanic communities have also been established in the state. Though it has the highest overall Catholic percentage of any state, none of Rhode Island’s individual counties ranks among the 10 most Catholic in the United States, as Catholics are very evenly spread throughout the state.

The Jewish community of Rhode Island is centered in the Providence area, and emerged during a wave of Jewish immigration predominantly from Eastern Europeans shtetls between 1880 and 1920. The presence of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, the oldest existing synagogue in the United States, emphasizes that these second-wave immigrants did not create Rhode Island’s first Jewish community; a comparatively smaller wave of Spanish and Portuguese Jews immigrated to Newport during the colonial era.

Rhode Island is divided into five counties but it has no county governments. The entire state is divided into municipalities, which handle all local government affairs.

There are 39 cities and towns in Rhode Island. Major population centers today result from historical factors; development took place predominantly along the Blackstone, Seekonk, and Providence Rivers with the advent of the water-powered mill. Providence is the base of a large metropolitan area.

The state’s 18 largest municipalities ranked by population are[102] :

Some of Rhode Island’s cities and towns are further partitioned into villages, in common with many other New England states. Notable villages include Kingston in the town of South Kingstown, which houses the University of Rhode Island; Wickford in the town of North Kingstown, the site of an annual international art festival; and Wakefield where the Town Hall is located for the Town of South Kingstown.[103]

1. Providence

2. Warwick

3. Cranston

4. Pawtucket

5. East Providence

6. Woonsocket

7. Coventry

8. Cumberland

9. North Providence

10. South Kingstown

11. Johnston

12. West Warwick

13. North Kingstown

14. Newport

15. Bristol

The Rhode Island economy had a colonial base in fishing.

The Blackstone River Valley was a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. It was in Pawtucket that Samuel Slater set up Slater Mill in 1793,[104] using the waterpower of the Blackstone River to power his cotton mill. For a while, Rhode Island was one of the leaders in textiles. However, with the Great Depression, most textile factories relocated to southern U.S. states. The textile industry still constitutes a part of the Rhode Island economy but does not have the same power that it once had.

Other important industries in Rhode Island’s past included toolmaking, costume jewelry, and silverware. An interesting by-product of Rhode Island’s industrial history is the number of abandoned factories, many of them now being used for condominiums, museums, offices, and low-income and elderly housing. Today, much of the economy of Rhode Island is based in services, particularly healthcare and education, and still manufacturing to some extent.[105][106] The state’s nautical history continues in the 21st century in the form of nuclear submarine construction.

Per the 2013 American Communities Survey, Rhode Island has the highest paid elementary school teachers in the country, with an average salary of $75,028 (adjusted to inflation).[107]

The headquarters of Citizens Financial Group is located in Providence, the 14th largest bank in the United States.[108] The Fortune 500 companies CVS Caremark and Textron are based in Woonsocket and Providence, respectively. FM Global, GTECH Corporation, Hasbro, American Power Conversion, Nortek, and Amica Mutual Insurance are all Fortune 1000 companies that are based in Rhode Island.[109]

Rhode Island’s 2000 total gross state production was $46.18 billion (adjusted to inflation), placing it 45th in the nation. Its 2000 per capita personal income was $41,484 (adjusted to inflation), 16th in the nation. Rhode Island has the lowest level of energy consumption per capita of any state.[110][111][112] Additionally, Rhode Island is rated as the 5th most energy efficient state in the country.[113][114] In December 2012, the state’s unemployment rate was 10.2%.[115]

Health services are Rhode Island’s largest industry. Second is tourism, supporting 39,000 jobs, with tourism-related sales at $4.56 billion (adjusted to inflation) in the year 2000. The third-largest industry is manufacturing.[116] Its industrial outputs are submarine construction, shipbuilding, costume jewelry, fabricated metal products, electrical equipment, machinery, and boatbuilding. Rhode Island’s agricultural outputs are nursery stock, vegetables, dairy products, and eggs.

Rhode Island’s taxes were appreciably higher than neighboring states,[76] because Rhode Island’s income tax was based on 25% of the payer’s federal income tax payment.[117] Former Governor Donald Carcieri claimed that the higher tax rate had an inhibitory effect on business growth in the state and called for reductions to increase the competitiveness of the state’s business environment. In 2010, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed a new state income tax structure that was then signed into law on June 9, 2010, by Governor Carcieri.[118] The income tax overhaul has now made Rhode Island competitive with other New England states by lowering its maximum tax rate to 5.99% and reducing the number of tax brackets to three.[119] The state’s first income tax was enacted in 1971.[120]

As of March 2011[update], the largest employers in Rhode Island (excluding employees of municipalities) are the following:[121]

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) operates statewide intra- and intercity bus transport from its hubs at Kennedy Plaza in Providence, Pawtucket, and Newport. RIPTA bus routes serve 38 of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns. (New Shoreham on Block Island is not served). RIPTA currently operates 58 routes, including daytime trolley service (using trolley-style replica buses) in Providence and Newport.

From 2000 through 2008, RIPTA offered seasonal ferry service linking Providence and Newport (already connected by highway) funded by grant money from the United States Department of Transportation. Though the service was popular with residents and tourists, RIPTA was unable to continue on after the federal funding ended. Service was discontinued as of 2010[update].[123] The service was resumed in 2016 and has been successful. The privately run Block Island Ferry[124] links Block Island with Newport and Narragansett with traditional and fast-ferry service, while the Prudence Island Ferry[125] connects Bristol with Prudence Island. Private ferry services also link several Rhode Island communities with ports in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. The Vineyard Fast Ferry[126] offers seasonal service to Martha’s Vineyard from Quonset Point with bus and train connections to Providence, Boston, and New York. Viking Fleet[127] offers seasonal service from Block Island to New London, Connecticut, and Montauk, New York.

The MBTA Commuter Rail’s Providence/Stoughton Line links Providence and T. F. Green Airport with Boston. The line was later extended southward to Wickford Junction, with service beginning April 23, 2012. The state hopes to extend the MBTA line to Kingston and Westerly, as well as explore the possibility of extending Connecticut’s Shore Line East to T.F. Green Airport.[128] Amtrak’s Acela Express stops at Providence Station (the only Acela stop in Rhode Island), linking Providence to other cities in the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak’s Northeast Regional service makes stops at Providence Station, Kingston, and Westerly.

Rhode Island’s primary airport for passenger and cargo transport is T. F. Green Airport in Warwick, though most Rhode Islanders who wish to travel internationally on direct flights and those who seek a greater availability of flights and destinations often fly through Logan International Airport in Boston.

Interstate 95 (I-95) runs southwest to northeast across the state, linking Rhode Island with other states along the East Coast. I-295 functions as a partial beltway encircling Providence to the west. I-195 provides a limited-access highway connection from Providence (and Connecticut and New York via I-95) to Cape Cod. Initially built as the easternmost link in the (now cancelled) extension of I-84 from Hartford, Connecticut, a portion of U.S. Route 6 (US 6) through northern Rhode Island is limited-access and links I-295 with downtown Providence.

Several Rhode Island highways extend the state’s limited-access highway network. Route 4 is a major north–south freeway linking Providence and Warwick (via I-95) with suburban and beach communities along Narragansett Bay. Route 10 is an urban connector linking downtown Providence with Cranston and Johnston. Route 37 is an important east–west freeway through Cranston and Warwick and links I-95 with I-295. Route 99 links Woonsocket with Providence (via Route 146). Route 146 travels through the Blackstone Valley, linking Providence and I-95 with Worcester, Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Turnpike. Route 403 links Route 4 with Quonset Point.

Several bridges cross Narragansett Bay connecting Aquidneck Island and Conanicut Island to the mainland, most notably the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge and the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge.

The East Bay Bike Path stretches from Providence to Bristol along the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay, while the Blackstone River Bikeway will eventually link Providence and Worcester. In 2011, Rhode Island completed work on a marked on-road bicycle path through Pawtucket and Providence, connecting the East Bay Bike Path with the Blackstone River Bikeway, completing a 33.5 miles (54 km) bicycle route through the eastern side of the state.[129] The William C. O’Neill Bike Path (commonly known as the South County Bike Path) is an 8 mi (13 km) path through South Kingstown and Narragansett. The 19 mi (31 km) Washington Secondary Bike Path stretches from Cranston to Coventry, and the 2 mi (3.2 km) Ten Mile River Greenway path runs through East Providence and Pawtucket.

On May 29, 2014, Governor Lincoln D. Chafee announced that Rhode Island was one of eight states to release a collaborative Action Plan to put 3.3 million zero emission vehicles on the roads by 2025. The goal of the plan is to reduce greenhouse gas and smog-causing emissions. The Action Plan covers promoting zero emission vehicles and investing in the infrastructure to support them.[130]

In 2014, Rhode Island received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency in the amount of $2,711,685 to clean up Brownfield sites in eight locations. The intent of the grants was to provide communities with the funding necessary to assess, clean up, and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies, and leverage jobs while protecting public health and the environment.[131]

In 2013, the “Lots of Hope” program was established in the City of Providence to focus on increasing the city’s green space and local food production, improve urban neighborhoods, promote healthy lifestyles and improve environmental sustainability. “Lots of Hope”, supported by a $100,000 grant, will partner with the City of Providence, the Southside Community Land Trust and the Rhode Island Foundation to convert city-owned vacant lots into productive urban farms.[132]

In 2012, Rhode Island passed bill S2277/H7412, “An act relating to Health and Safety – Environmental Cleanup Objectives for Schools”, informally known as the “School Siting Bill.” The bill, sponsored by Senator Juan Pichardo and Representative Scott Slater and signed into law by the Governor, made Rhode Island the first state in the US to prohibit school construction on Brownfield Sites where there is an ongoing potential for toxic vapors to negatively impact indoor air quality. It also creates a public participation process whenever a city or town considers building a school on any other kind of contaminated site.[133]

Rhode Island has several colleges and universities:

Some Rhode Islanders speak with the distinctive, non-rhotic, traditional Rhode Island accent that many compare to a cross between the New York City and Boston accents (e.g., “water” sounds like “watuh”). Many Rhode Islanders distinguish a strong aw sound [ɔə] (i.e., do not exhibit the cot–caught merger) as one might hear in New Jersey or New York City; for example, the word coffee is pronounced [ˈkʰɔəfi] KAW-fee.[134] This type of accent may have been brought to the region by early settlers from eastern England in the Puritan migration to New England in the mid-17th century.[135]

Rhode Islanders refer to a drinking fountain as a “bubbler” (sometimes pronounced “bubahluh”) and sometimes call milkshakes “cabinets”. A foot-long, overstuffed sandwich (of whatever kind) is called a “grinder.”

Rhode Island, like the rest of New England, has a tradition of clam chowder. Both the white New England and the red Manhattan varieties are popular, but there is also a unique clear-broth chowder known as Rhode Island Clam Chowder available in many restaurants. A culinary tradition in Rhode Island is the clam cake (also known as a clam fritter outside of Rhode Island), a deep fried ball of buttery dough with chopped bits of clam inside. They are sold by the half-dozen or dozen in most seafood restaurants around the state, and the quintessential summer meal in Rhode Island is chowder and clam cakes.

The quahog is a large local clam usually used in a chowder. It is also ground and mixed with stuffing or spicy minced sausage, and then baked in its shell to form a stuffie. Calamari (squid) is sliced into rings and fried as an appetizer in most Italian restaurants, typically served Sicilian-style with sliced banana peppers and marinara sauce on the side. (In 2014, calamari became the official state appetizer.[136]) Clams Casino originated in Rhode Island, invented by Julius Keller, the maitre d’ in the original Casino next to the seaside Towers in Narragansett.[137] Clams Casino resemble the beloved stuffed quahog but are generally made with the smaller littleneck or cherrystone clam and are unique in their use of bacon as a topping.

The official state drink of Rhode Island is coffee milk,[138] a beverage created by mixing milk with coffee syrup. This unique syrup was invented in the state and is sold in almost all Rhode Island supermarkets, as well as its bordering states. Johnnycakes have been a Rhode Island staple since Colonial times, made with corn meal and water then pan-fried much like pancakes.

Submarine sandwiches are called grinders throughout Rhode Island, and the Italian grinder is especially popular, made with cold cuts such as ham, prosciutto, capicola, salami, and Provolone cheese. Linguiça or chouriço is a spicy Portuguese sausage, frequently served with peppers among the state’s large Portuguese community and eaten with hearty bread.

The Farrelly brothers and Seth MacFarlane depict Rhode Island in popular culture, often making comedic parodies of the state. MacFarlane’s television series Family Guy is based in a fictional Rhode Island city named Quahog, and notable local events and celebrities are regularly lampooned. Peter Griffin is seen working at the Pawtucket brewery, and other state locations are mentioned.

The movie High Society (starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra) was set in Newport, Rhode Island.

The 1974 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby was also filmed in Newport.

Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married at St. Mary’s church in Newport. Their reception was held at Hammersmith Farm, the Bouvier summer home in Newport.

Cartoonist Don Bousquet, a state icon, has made a career out of Rhode Island culture, drawing Rhode Island-themed gags in The Providence Journal and Yankee magazine. These cartoons have been reprinted in the Quahog series of paperbacks (I Brake for Quahogs, Beware of the Quahog, and The Quahog Walks Among Us.) Bousquet has also collaborated with humorist and Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin on two books: The Rhode Island Dictionary and The Rhode Island Handbook.

The 1998 film Meet Joe Black was filmed at Aldrich Mansion in the Warwick Neck area of Warwick.

Body of Proof’s first season was filmed entirely in Rhode Island.[139] The show premiered on March 29, 2011.[140]

The 2007 Steve Carell and Dane Cook film Dan in Real Life was filmed in various coastal towns in the state. The sunset scene with the entire family on the beach takes place at Napatree Point.

Jersey Shore star Pauly D filmed part of his spin-off The Pauly D Project in his hometown of Johnston.

The Comedy Central cable television series Another Period is set in Newport during the Gilded Age.

Rhode Island has been the first in a number of initiatives. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations enacted the first law prohibiting slavery in America on May 18, 1652.[141]

The first act of armed rebellion in America against the British Crown was the boarding and burning of the Revenue Schooner Gaspee in Narragansett Bay on June 10, 1772. The idea of a Continental Congress was first proposed at a town meeting in Providence on May 17, 1774. Rhode Island elected the first delegates (Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward) to the Continental Congress on June 15, 1774. The Rhode Island General Assembly created the first standing army in the colonies (1,500 men) on April 22, 1775. On June 15, 1775, the first naval engagement took place in the American Revolution between an American sloop commanded by Capt. Abraham Whipple and an armed tender of the British Frigate Rose. The tender was chased aground and captured. Later in June, the General Assembly created the American Navy when it commissioned the sloops Katy and Washington, armed with 24 guns and commanded by Abraham Whipple who was promoted to Commodore. Rhode Island was the first Colony to declare independence from Britain on May 4, 1776.[141]

Slater Mill in Pawtucket was the first commercially successful cotton-spinning mill with a fully mechanized power system in America and was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the US.[142] The oldest Fourth of July parade in the country is still held annually in Bristol, Rhode Island. The first Baptist church in America was founded in Providence in 1638.[143]Ann Smith Franklin of the Newport Mercury was the first female newspaper editor in America (August 22, 1762).[141]Touro Synagogue was the first synagogue in America, founded in Newport in 1763.[141]

Pelham Street in Newport was the first in America to be illuminated by gaslight in 1806.[141] The first strike in the United States in which women participated occurred in Pawtucket in 1824.[141]Watch Hill has the nation’s oldest flying horses carousel that has been in continuous operation since 1850.[141] The motion picture machine was patented in Providence on April 23, 1867.[141] The first lunch wagon in America was introduced in Providence in 1872.[141] The first nine-hole golf course in America was completed in Newport in 1890.[141] The first state health laboratory was established in Providence on September 1, 1894.[141] The Rhode Island State House was the first building with an all-marble dome to be built in the United States (1895–1901).[141] The first automobile race on a track was held in Cranston on September 7, 1896.[141] The first automobile parade was held in Newport on September 7, 1899 on the grounds of Belcourt Castle.[141]

Rhode Island is nicknamed “The Ocean State”, and the nautical nature of Rhode Island’s geography pervades its culture. Newport Harbor, in particular, holds many pleasure boats. In the lobby of T. F. Green, the state’s main airport, is a large life-sized sailboat,[144] and the state’s license plates depict an ocean wave or a sailboat.[145]

Additionally, the large number of beaches in Washington County lures many Rhode Islanders south for summer vacation.[146]

The state was notorious for organized crime activity from the 1950s into the 1990s when the Patriarca crime family held sway over most of New England from its Providence headquarters.

Rhode Islanders developed a unique style of architecture in the 17th century called the stone-ender.[147]

Rhode Island is the only state to still celebrate Victory over Japan Day which is officially named “Victory Day” but is sometimes referred to as “VJ Day.”[148] It is celebrated on the second Monday in August.[149]

Nibbles Woodaway, more commonly referred to as “The Big Blue Bug”, is a 58-foot-long termite mascot for a Providence extermination business. Since its construction in 1980, it has been featured in several movies and television shows, and has come to be recognized as a cultural landmark by many locals.[150] In more recent times, the Big Blue Bug has been given a mask to remind locals and visitors to mask-up during the COVID-19 outbreak.[151]

Rhode Island has two professional sports teams, both of which are top-level minor league affiliates for teams in Boston. The Pawtucket Red Sox baseball team of the Triple-A International League are an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. They play at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket and have won four league titles, the Governors’ Cup, in 1973, 1984, 2012, and 2014. McCoy Stadium also has the distinction of being home to the longest professional baseball game ever played – 33 innings.

The other professional minor league team is the Providence Bruins ice hockey team of the American Hockey League, who are an affiliate of the Boston Bruins. They play in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence and won the AHL’s Calder Cup during the 1998–99 AHL season.

The Providence Reds were a hockey team that played in the Canadian-American Hockey League (CAHL) between 1926 and 1936 and the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1936 to 1977, the last season of which they played as the Rhode Island Reds. The team won the Calder Cup in 1938, 1940, 1949, and 1956. The Reds played at the Rhode Island Auditorium, located on North Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island from 1926 through 1972, when the team affiliated with the New York Rangers and moved into the newly built Providence Civic Center. The team name came from the rooster known as the Rhode Island Red. They moved to New York in 1977, then to Connecticut in 1997, and are now called the Hartford Wolf Pack.

The Reds are the oldest continuously operating minor-league hockey franchise in North America, having fielded a team in one form or another since 1926 in the CAHL. It is also the only AHL franchise to have never missed a season. The AHL returned to Providence in 1992 in the form of the Providence Bruins.

Before the great expansion of athletic teams all over the country, Providence and Rhode Island in general played a great role in supporting teams. The Providence Grays won the first World Championship in baseball history in 1884. The team played their home games at the old Messer Street Field in Providence. The Grays played in the National League from 1878 to 1885. They defeated the New York Metropolitans of the American Association in a best of five game series at the Polo Grounds in New York. Providence won three straight games to become the first champions in major league baseball history. Babe Ruth played for the minor league Providence Grays of 1914 and hit his only official minor league home run for that team before being recalled by the Grays’ parent club, the Boston Red Stockings.

The now-defunct professional football team the Providence Steam Roller won the 1928 NFL title. They played in a 10,000 person stadium called the Cycledrome.[152] The Providence Steamrollers played in the Basketball Association of America which became the National Basketball Association.

Rhode Island is also home to a top semi-professional soccer club, the Rhode Island Reds, which compete in the National premier soccer league, in the fourth division of U.S. Soccer.

Rhode Island is home to one top level non-minor league team, the Rhode Island Rebellion rugby league team, a semi-professional rugby league team that competes in the USA Rugby League, the Top Competition in the United States for the Sport of Rugby League.[153][154] The Rebellion play their home games at Classical High School in Providence.[155]

There are four NCAA Division I schools in Rhode Island. All four schools compete in different conferences. The Brown University Bears compete in the Ivy League, the Bryant University Bulldogs compete in the Northeast Conference, the Providence College Friars compete in the Big East Conference, and the University of Rhode Island Rams compete in the Atlantic-10 Conference. Three of the schools’ football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, the second-highest level of college football in the United States. Brown plays FCS football in the Ivy League, Bryant plays FCS football in the Northeast Conference, and Rhode Island plays FCS football in the Colonial Athletic Association. All four of the Division I schools in the state compete in an intrastate all-sports competition known as the Ocean State Cup, with Bryant winning the most recent cup in 2011–12 academic year.

From 1930 to 1983, America’s Cup races were sailed off Newport, and the extreme-sport X Games and Gravity Games were founded and hosted in the state’s capital city.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame is in Newport at the Newport Casino, site of the first U.S. National Championships in 1881. The Hall of Fame and Museum were established in 1954 by James Van Alen as “a shrine to the ideals of the game”.

Rhode Island is also home to the headquarters of the governing body for youth rugby league in the United States, the American Youth Rugby League Association or AYRLA. The AYRLA has started the first-ever Rugby League youth competition in Providence Middle Schools, a program at the RI Training School, in addition to starting the first High School Competition in the US in Providence Public High School.[156]

The state capitol building is made of white Georgian marble. On top is the world’s fourth largest self-supported marble dome.[157] It houses the Rhode Island Charter granted by King Charles II in 1663, the Brown University charter, and other state treasures.

The First Baptist Church of Providence is the oldest Baptist church in the Americas, founded by Roger Williams in 1638.

The first fully automated post office in the country is located in Providence. There are many historic mansions in the seaside city of Newport, including The Breakers, Marble House, and Belcourt Castle. Also located there is the Touro Synagogue, dedicated on December 2, 1763, considered by locals to be the first synagogue within the United States (see below for information on New York City’s claim), and still serving. The synagogue showcases the religious freedoms that were established by Roger Williams, as well as impressive architecture in a mix of the classic colonial and Sephardic style. The Newport Casino is a National Historic Landmark building complex that presently houses the International Tennis Hall of Fame and features an active grass-court tennis club.

Scenic Route 1A (known locally as Ocean Road) is in Narragansett. “The Towers” is also located in Narragansett featuring a large stone arch. It was once the entrance to a famous Narragansett casino that burned down in 1900. The Towers now serve as an event venue and host the local Chamber of Commerce, which operates a tourist information center.

The Newport Tower has been hypothesized to be of Viking origin, although most experts believe that it was a Colonial-era windmill.[158]


The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean it was founded by Roger Williams. It was an English colony from 1636 until 1707, and then a colony of Great Britain until the American Revolution in 1776, when it became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known simply as Rhode Island).During winter they had very harsh weather and cold summers ranging from 70 to the mid 70’s. They made money from fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. Other parts of Rhode Island made money by exporting agricultural and food products, selling maple syrup, livestock, rum, whiskey, and beer.

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.”)[1] Williams named the islands in the Narragansett Bay after Christian virtues: Patience, Prudence, and Hope Islands.[2]

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).[3]word meaning rhode island

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6][7] The Rhode Island colony was very progressive for the time, passing laws abolishing witchcraft trials, imprisonment for debt, most capital punishment, and slavery of both blacks and whites,[8][9] enacting the first law prohibiting slavery in America on May 18, 1652, more than 210 years before the Emancipation Proclamation.[10]

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.[6][7] During King Philip’s War (1675–1676), both sides regularly violated Rhode Island’s neutrality. The war’s largest battle occurred in Rhode Island on December 19, 1675 when a force of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified Narragansett village in the Great Swamp.[11] The Narragansetts also invaded and burned several towns in Rhode Island, including Providence. Roger Williams knew both Metacom (Philip) and Canonchet as children. He was aware of the tribe’s activities and promptly sent letters informing the Governor of Massachusetts of enemy movements. 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 killed King Philip (Metacom) in Mount Hope, Rhode Island.[6][7]

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.[12] 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.[citation needed] With this event, the dominion collapsed and Rhode Island resumed its previous government.[13]

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.[14]

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.[citation needed]

On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the 13 colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown,[15] and was the fourth to ratify the Articles of Confederation between the newly sovereign states on February 9, 1778.[16] It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution,[17] and initially refused to ratify it.[18] 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.[19]

The boundaries of the colony underwent numerous changes, including repeated disputes with Massachusetts and Connecticut Colonies who contested for control of territory later awarded to Rhode Island. Rhode Island’s early compacts did not stipulate the boundary on the eastern shore of Narrangansett Bay, and did not include any of Washington County, land that belonged to the Narragansett people. The original settlements were at Providence, Warwick, Newport, and Portsmouth, and the territory was expanded by purchasing land from the Narragansetts westward toward Connecticut and the smaller islands in Narrangasett Bay. Block Island was settled in 1637 after the Pequot War, became a part of the colony in 1664, and was incorporated in 1672 as New Shoreham.[20]

The western boundary with Connecticut was defined ambiguously as the “Narragansett River” in the Connecticut charter, which was decided by arbitrators in 1663 to be the Pawcatuck River from its mouth to the Ashaway River mouth, from which a northward line was drawn to the Massachusetts line. This resolved a long-standing dispute concerning the former Narragansett lands which were also claimed by Connecticut and Massachusetts, although the dispute continued until 1703, when the arbitration award was upheld. After repeated surveys, a mutually agreeable line was defined and surveyed in 1728.[20]

The eastern boundary was also an area of dispute with Massachusetts. Overlapping charters had awarded an area extending three miles inland to both Plymouth and Rhode Island east of Narragansett Bay; this area was awarded to Rhode Island in 1741, establishing Rhode Island’s jurisdiction over Barrington, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton, and Little Compton which Massachusetts had claimed. Also adjudicated in the 1741 decision was the award of most of Cumberland to Rhode Island from Massachusetts. The final establishment of the boundaries north of Barrington and east of the Blackstone River occurred almost a century after American independence,[20] requiring protracted litigation and multiple US Supreme Court decisions. In the final decision, a portion of Tiverton was awarded to Massachusetts to become part of Fall River, and eastern Pawtucket and East Providence were awarded to Rhode Island.

Rhode Island’s northern border with Massachusetts also underwent a number of changes. Massachusetts surveyed this line in 1642, but subsequent surveys by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut agreed that it was placed too far south.[20] In 1718-19, commissioners for Rhode Island and Massachusetts agreed on roughly that line anyway (except the section east of the Blackstone River, which remained disputed until 1741), and this is where the line remains today.

From 1640 to 1774, the population of Rhode Island grew from 300 to 59,607,[21][22] and would decline during the American Revolutionary War to 52,946 in 1780.[23] After William Coddington and a group of 13 other men bought Aquidneck Island from Narragansett Indians in 1639, the population of Newport, Rhode Island grew from 96 in 1640 to 7,500 in 1760 (making Newport the fifth-largest city in the Thirteen Colonies at the time),[24][25] and Newport grew further to 9,209 by 1774.[22] The black population in the colony grew from 25 in 1650 to 3,668 in 1774 (ranging between 3 and 10 percent of the population),[21][22] and like the state as a whole, declined to 2,671 (or 5 percent of the population) by 1780.[23] In 1774, Indians accounted for 1,479 of the inhabitants of the colony (or 3 percent).[22]

Rhode Island was the only New England colony without an established church.[26] In 1650, of the 109 places of worship with regular services in the eight British American colonies (including those without resident clergy), only 4 were located in Rhode Island (2 Baptist and 2 Congregational),[26] while there was a small Jewish enclave in Newport by 1658.[27] By 1750, the number of regular places of worship in Rhode Island grew to 50 (30 Baptist, 12 Congregational, 7 Anglican, and 1 Jewish),[28] with the colony gaining an additional 5 regular places of worship by 1776 (26 Baptist, 11 Friends, 9 Congregational, 5 Episcopal, 1 Jewish, 1 New Light Congregational, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 Sandemanian).[29]

Puritan mass migration to New England began following the issuance of the royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company by Charles I of England in 1629 and continued until the beginning of the English Civil War in 1642, while following the war’s conclusion in 1651, immigration to New England leveled off and the population growth owed almost entirely to natural increase rather than immigration or slave importations for the remainder of the 17th century and through the 18th century.[30][31] Mass migration from New England to the Province of New York and the Province of New Jersey began following the surrender of New Netherland by the Dutch Republic at Fort Amsterdam in 1664, and the population of New York would continue to expand more so by in-migration by families from New England (including Rhode Island) in the 18th century rather than from natural increase.[32][33][34]

Despite the initial Puritan mass migration also having a 2:1 male sex-imbalance like the British colonization of the Chesapeake Colonies,[35][36] unlike the Southern Colonies in the 17th century, most Puritan immigrants to New England migrated as families (as approximately two-thirds of the male Puritan immigrants to New England were married rather than unmarried indentured servants),[30][36] and in late 17th century New England, 3 percent of the population was over the age of 65 (while only 1 percent in the Chesapeake was in 1704).[37] By the American Revolutionary War, only 2 percent of the New England colonial labor force were bonded or convict laborers and another 2 percent were black slaves, while 9 percent of the colonial black population in New England were free persons of color (as compared with only 3 percent in the Southern Colonies).[31][38] In February 1784, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed a gradual emancipation law that increased the ratio of the free black population in Rhode Island to 78 percent by the 1790 U.S. Census and that would ultimately eliminate slavery in Rhode Island by 1842.[39][40][41]

Culture:Anglosphere


Coordinates: 41°49′52″N 71°25′02″W / 41.8310574°N 71.4171443°W / 41.8310574; -71.4171443


Minority

The Rhode Island House of Representatives is the lower house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the upper house being the Rhode Island Senate. It is composed of 75 members, elected to two year terms from 75 districts of equal population. The Rhode Island General Assembly does not have term limits. The House meets at the Rhode Island State Capitol in Providence.[1]

The Speaker of the House presides over the House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation of the full House through the passage of a House Resolution. As well as presiding over the body, the Speaker is also the chief leadership position, and controls the flow of legislation. Other House leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses relative to their party’s strength in the chamber.
word meaning rhode island

This list is of members elected in November 2018, to serve in the 2019–20 biennium.[6]

The history of Rhode Island is an overview of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and the state of Rhode Island from pre-colonial times to the present.

Native Americans occupied most of the area comprising Rhode Island, including the Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Niantic tribes.[1] Many were killed by diseases, possibly contracted through contact with European explorers (though no definitive source has been proven), and through warfare with other tribes. The Narragansett language eventually died out, although it was partially preserved in Roger Williams’s A Key into the Languages of America (1643).[2]

In 1636, Roger Williams settled on land granted to him by the Narragansett tribe at the tip of Narragansett Bay after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views. He called the site “Providence Plantations” and declared it a place of religious freedom.

In 1638, Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington, John Clarke, Philip Sherman, and other religious dissidents settled on Rhode Island after conferring with Williams,[3] forming the settlement of Portsmouth which was governed by the Portsmouth Compact. The southern part of the island became the separate settlement of Newport after disagreements among the founders.

Dissident Samuel Gorton purchased Indian lands at Shawomet in 1642, 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. The King of England granted Gorton a separate charter for his settlement in 1648, and Gorton named the settlement Warwick in honor of the Earl of Warwick who had helped him obtain it.[4] These four settlements were finally united into one colony by the Royal Charter of 1663. Critics at the time sometimes referred to it as “Rogue’s Island”,[5] and Cotton Mather called it “the sewer of New England” because of the Colony’s willingness to accept people who had been banished from Massachusetts Bay.[6]word meaning rhode island

In 1686, King James II ordered Rhode Island to submit to the Dominion of New England and its appointed governor Edmund Andros. This suspended the Colony’s charter, but Rhode Island managed to retain possession of it throughout the brief duration of the Dominion—until Andros was deposed and the Dominion was dissolved.[7]William of Orange became King after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and Rhode Island’s independent government resumed under the 1663 charter—and that charter was used as the state constitution until 1842.[8]

In 1693, William III and Mary II issued a patent extending Rhode Island’s territory to three miles “east and northeast” of Narragansett Bay, conflicting with the claims of Plymouth Colony.[9] This resulted in several later transfers of territory between Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Early relations were mostly peaceful between New Englanders and the Indian tribes. The largest tribes that lived near Rhode Island were the Wampanoags, Pequots, Narragansetts, and Nipmucks. Squanto was a member of the Wampanoag tribe who stayed with the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony and taught them many valuable skills needed to survive in the area.

Roger Williams won the respect of his Colonial neighbors for his skill in keeping the powerful Narragansetts on friendly terms with the Colonists. In 1637, the Narragansetts formed an alliance with Rhode Island during the Pequot War. However, this peace did not last long, as the most traumatic event in 17th century Rhode Island was King Philip’s War (1675–76). Metacomet became the chief of the Wampanoags; he was known as King Philip by the settlers of Portsmouth who had purchased their land from his father Massasoit. He led attacks around Narragansett Bay, despite Rhode Island’s continued neutrality, and later these spread throughout New England. A force of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified Narragansett Indian village in the Great Swamp in southern Rhode Island on December 19, 1675.[10] The Narragansetts also invaded and burned down several of the Rhode Island settlements, including Providence, although they allowed the population to leave first. In one of the final actions of the war, troops from Connecticut led by Captain Benjamin Church hunted down and killed King Philip at Mount Hope (Rhode Island).

Rhode Island was the first colony in America to declare independence on May 4, 1776, a full two months before the United States Declaration of Independence.[11] Rhode Islanders had attacked the British warship HMS Gaspee in 1772 as one of the first acts of war leading to the American Revolution. British naval forces under Captain James Wallace controlled Narragansett Bay for much of the Revolutionary War, periodically raiding the islands and the mainland. The British raided Prudence Island for livestock and engaged in a skirmish with American forces, losing approximately a dozen soldiers. Newport remained a hotbed for Loyalist sympathizers who assisted the British forces, so the state appointed General William West of Scituate to root them out in the winter of 1775–76. British forces occupied Newport from 1777 to 1778, pushing the Colonial forces to Bristol.

The Battle of Rhode Island was fought during the summer of 1778 and was an unsuccessful attempt to expel the British from Narragansett Bay, although few Colonial casualties occurred. The Marquis de Lafayette called the action the “best fought” of the war. The British were forced to concentrate their forces in New York and consequently left Newport. The French under Rochambeau landed in Newport in 1780, and it became the base of the French forces in the United States for the remainder of the war. The French soldiers behaved themselves so well that, in gratitude, the Rhode Island General Assembly repealed an old law banning Catholics from living in Rhode Island. The first Catholic mass in Rhode Island was said in Newport during this time.

The State of Rhode Island was the last of the 13 states to ratify the United States Constitution (May 29, 1790), only doing so after being threatened with having its exports taxed as a foreign nation. Rural resistance to the Constitution was strong in Rhode Island, and the anti-federalist Country Party controlled the General Assembly from 1786 to 1790. In 1788, anti-federalist politician and Revolutionary War General William West led an armed force of 1,000 men to Providence to oppose a July 4 celebration of the state ratifying the Constitution.[12] Civil war was narrowly averted by a compromise limiting the Fourth of July celebration.

Rhode Island was heavily involved in the slave trade during the post-Revolutionary era prior to industrialization. In 1652, Rhode Island passed the first abolition law in the Thirteen Colonies banning slavery,[13] but the law was not enforced by the end of the 17th century. By 1774, the slave population of Rhode Island was 6.3 percent, 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 trade, most notably the Browns for whom Brown University is named. In the years after the Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled between 60 and 90 percent of the American trade in African slaves.[14] In the 18th century, Rhode Island’s economy depended largely upon the triangle trade; Rhode Islanders distilled rum from molasses, sent the rum to Africa to trade for slaves, and then traded the slaves in the West Indies for more molasses.

Stephen Hopkins, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, introduced a bill while serving in the Rhode Island Assembly in 1774 that prohibited the importation of slaves into the colony, and this became one of the first anti-slavery laws in the United States. In February 1784, the Rhode Island Legislature passed a compromise measure for gradual emancipation of slaves within the state. All children of slaves born after March 1 were to become apprentices, the girls to become free at 18, the boys at 21. By 1840, the census reported only five former Africans enslaved in Rhode Island.[14] However, the international slave trade continued despite the antislavery laws of 1774, 1784, and 1787. In 1789, an Abolition Society was organized to secure enforcement of existing laws against the trade. Leading merchants continued to engage in the trade even after it became illegal, especially John Brown and George DeWolf, but slaving was no more than a minor aspect of Rhode Island’s overall maritime trade after 1770.[15] By the mid-19th century, many Rhode Islanders were active in the abolitionist movement, particularly Quakers in Newport and Providence such as Moses Brown.[16] The Free African Union Society was America’s first African benevolent society, founded in Newport in 1780.[17] Rhode Island’s Constitution finally emancipated all slaves in 1843 in Section 4, “Slavery shall not be permitted in this state.”[18]

In 1790, English immigrant Samuel Slater founded the first textile mill in the United States in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (Slater Mill) and became known as the father of the American Industrial Revolution. During the 19th century, Rhode Island became one of the most industrialized states in America with large numbers of textile factories. The state also had significant machine tool, silverware, and costume jewelry industries.[19]

The Industrial Revolution moved large numbers of workers into cities and attracted large numbers of immigrants from Ireland, and a landless class developed which was ineligible to vote by Rhode Island law. By 1829, 60-percent of the state’s men were ineligible to vote. All efforts at reform failed in the face of rural control of the political system. In 1842, Thomas Dorr drafted a liberal constitution which he tried to ratify by popular referendum. However, conservative Governor Samuel Ward King opposed the constitution, leading to the Dorr Rebellion. The rebellion gained little support and failed, and Dorr went to prison. The conservative elements relented, however, and allowed most American-born men to vote, but the conservative rural towns remained in control of the legislature.[20] The new Constitution of Rhode Island took effect in May 1843.[21]

During the American Civil War, Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men to the Union armies, of which 1,685 died. These comprised 12 infantry regiments, three cavalry regiments, and an assortment of artillery and miscellaneous outfits. Rhode Island used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials needed to win the war, along with the other northern states. 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.[22] Governor William Sprague IV fought at the First Battle of Bull Run while a sitting governor, and Rhode Island general Ambrose Burnside emerged as one of the major heroes of the war.

The fifty or so years following the Civil War were a time of prosperity and affluence that author William G. McLoughlin called “Rhode Island’s halcyon era.”[23] Rhode Island was a center of the Gilded Age and provided a home (or summer home) to the many of the country’s most prominent robber barons.[23] This was a time of incredible growth in textile mills and manufacturing, and saw a huge influx of immigrants to fill those jobs.[23] The state saw increased population growth and urbanization, even as the state denied the growing urban masses access to political power.[23] In politics, the state was dominated by Republicans allied with their mouthpiece newspaper, The Providence Journal.[23] The Journal’s editor Henry B. Anthony and his later protege Nelson Aldrich, along with war hero Ambrose Burnside, all Republicans, dominated politics during this time. Aldrich, as US Senator, became known as the “General Manager of the United States,” for his ability to set high tariffs to protect Rhode Island — and American — goods from foreign competition.[23]

In Newport, New York’s wealthiest industrialists created a summer haven to socialize and build ostentatious grand mansions.[23] In Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket, thousands of French-Canadian, Italian, Irish, and Portuguese immigrants arrived to fill jobs in the textile and manufacturing mills.[23] In response, the Know Nothing party, allied with the Republicans and the Providence Journal, sought to exclude these newcomers from the political process.[23] The constitution of 1843 denied the vote to the landless poor, and ensured that urban centers were disproportionately underrepresented in the state legislature.[23]

Around the start of the 20th century, Rhode Island had a booming economy, which fed the demand for immigration. During World War I, Rhode Island furnished 28,817 troops, of whom 612 died. After the war, the state was hit hard by the Spanish Influenza.[24]

In the 1920s and 30s, rural Rhode Island saw a surge in Ku Klux Klan membership, largely among the native-born white population, in reaction to the large waves of immigrants moving to the state. The Klan is believed to be responsible for burning the Watchman Industrial School in Scituate, Rhode Island, which was a school for African American children.[25]

In 1935, Governor Theodore Francis Green and Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate replaced a Republican dominance that had existed since the middle of the 19th century in what is termed the “Bloodless Revolution.” The Rhode Island Democratic Party has dominated state politics ever since.[26][27] Since then, the Speaker of the House has always been a Democrat and one of the most powerful figures in government.

The Democratic Party presents itself as a coalition of labor unions, working class immigrants, intellectuals, college students, and the rising ethnic middle class. The Republican Party has been dominant in rural and suburban parts of the state, and has nominated occasional reform candidates who criticize the state’s high taxes and excesses of Democratic domination. Cranston Mayors Edward D. DiPrete and Stephen Laffey, Governor Donald Carcieri of East Greenwich, and former Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci of Providence ran as Republican reform candidates.

The state income tax was first enacted in 1971 as a temporary measure. Prior to 1971, there was no income tax in the state, but the temporary income tax soon became permanent. The tax burden in Rhode Island remains among the five highest in the United States, including sales, gasoline, property, cigarette, corporate, and capital gains taxes.[28][29]

A new Constitution of Rhode Island was ratified in 1986 and came into effect on 20 January 1987.[30][31]

Rhode Islanders have overwhelmingly supported and re-elected Democrats to positions of authority. As of 2020[update], Rhode Island has heavily Democratic legislatures; both U.S. Senators and Congressmen, and all statewide offices are held by Democrats. The state has been carried by Democratic presidential candidates in every election since 1988.[32]

Goat Island is a small island in Narragansett Bay and is part of the city of Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. The island is connected to the Easton’s Point neighborhood via a causeway bridge. It is home to the Newport Harbor Light (1842), residences, a restaurant, event space, and hotel. It was also home to several military forts and to the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, and was the site of the attacks on HMS St John and HMS Liberty.

Narragansett Indians called the island “Nante Sinunk” and sold it in 1658.[1] Early Newport colonists used the island as a goat pasture.[2] An earthen fort was built on Goat Island in 1703 during the War of Spanish Succession, and it was named “Fort Anne” after the reigning Queen Anne.

On Friday, 19 July 1723, twenty-six pirates were buried on the north end of Goat Island, on the shore, between high and low water mark. The significance of this placement is that, to Christians of this era, this inter-tidal land was considered “unhallowed ground,” like burials placed outside of a consecrated cemetery. The men had been tried in Newport between 10 and 12 July and hanged at nearby Bull’s Point (Gravelly Point). They were: Charles Harris, Thomas Linicar, Daniel Hyde, Stephen Mundon, Abraham Lacy, Edward Lawson, John Tomkins, Francis Laughton, John Fisgerald, William Studfield, Owen Rice, William Read, John Bright, Thomas Hazel, William Blades (Rhode Island), Thomas Hagget, Peter Cues, William Jones, Edward Eaton, John Brown, James Sprinkly, Joseph Sound, Charles Church, John Waters, Thomas Powell (Connecticut), and Joseph Libbey.[2] “The pirates were all young men, most of them natives of England.”[3] The following is taken from The Salem Observer, November 11, 1843: “…this was the most extensive execution of pirates that ever took place at one time in the Colonies, it was attended by a vast multitude from every part of New England.”[4]

In 1738, a stone fort was built and renamed Fort George after King George II.[5] In 1764, Newporters took over Fort George and fired shots at HMS St. John, a British ship with a crew that had allegedly stolen from local merchants.[6] In 1769, Rhode Islanders burned the customs ship HMS Liberty when it drifted to the north end of Goat Island (near where the pirates were buried) in another early act of rebellion against British rule.

In September 2018 maritime archaeologists reported that they had discovered the resting place of Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour just off the coast of Goat Island, where it had been used to blockade the British during the US Revolutionary War. The ship and its crew had been made famous as the first European explorers to visit Australia’s east coast.[7]word meaning rhode island

In 1775, the Fort was renamed Fort Liberty. The British army occupied Newport from 1776 through 1779 and renamed it Fort George during that time.

In 1784 it was repaired and renamed Fort Washington after George Washington. In 1794, Newport sold Goat Island to the federal government for $1,500 to maintain a military fort to defend Newport Harbor. The fort was named Fort Wolcott in commemoration the services of Oliver Wolcott who was a General of the Militia and a member of the Continental Congress from Connecticut. In 1824, the first Newport Harbor Lighthouse was constructed at the north end of the island. Fort Wolcott was active until 1835 when the garrison was transferred to Florida to fight the Seminole Indians.

In 1851 the original lighthouse moved to Prudence Island to become Prudence Island Light, and the current Newport Harbor Light was constructed on a dike near the former lighthouse site. The area surrounding the dike was later filled in when the hotel was constructed much later.[5]

In 1869 the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station was founded on Goat Island, on the site of the former Army fort. The Station was greatly expanded over the next 100 years and produced many of the Navy’s torpedoes through World War I and World War II at the island’s Navy Torpedo Factory. One of the Navy’s first radio stations was established on the island in 1903. The torpedo station was closed in 1951 and Naval Undersea Warfare Center was created with a facility nearby.

In addition to the Goat Island lighthouse, the Coast Guard has maintained a cutter at Goat Island since at least the late 1960s. The Point-class cutter USCGC Point Turner (WPB-82365) served her entire 31-year career at Goat Island from when she was commissioned on 14 April 1967 until she was decommissioned on 3 April 1998. The tradition of having a Coast Guard cutter stationed at Goat Island resumed when the Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat USCGC Tiger Shark (WPB-87359) was commissioned on 16 July 2005.[5]

Fog horn on Goat Island

Hyatt Hotel on Goat Island. Gurney’s took over the property in 2016.

Marina Bar and Grille is located in the only U.S. Navy building remaining on Goat Island

Condos on Goat Island, built in 1978 and 1979

Former home of Thomas Rodgers on Goat Island[clarification needed]

Harbor Houses on Goat Island

Harbor Houses on Goat Island

Belle Mer

Seawall on Goat Island in Newport, Rhode Island

Fort George with colonial era Newport in the background

This is a complete list of the U.S. states, federal district, and its major territories ordered by total area, land area, and water area. The water area includes inland waters, coastal waters, the Great Lakes, and territorial waters. Glaciers and intermittent bodies of water are counted as land area.[1]

All divisions presented below are as configured by the United States Census Bureau.

All regions presented below are as configured by the United States Census Bureau.

U.S. states by total area

U.S. states by land area

word meaning rhode island

U.S. states by water area

U.S. states by water percentage

Alaska is the largest state by total area, land area, and water area. It is the seventh-largest country subdivision in the world.[4]

The area of Alaska is 18% of the area of the United States and 21% of the area of the contiguous United States.

The second largest state, Texas, has only 40% of the total area of the largest state, Alaska.

Rhode Island is the smallest state by total area and land area.

San Bernardino County is the largest county in the contiguous U.S. and is larger than each of the nine smallest states; it is larger than the four smallest states combined.

Michigan is second (after Alaska) in water area, and first in water percentage.

Florida is mostly a peninsula, and has the third-largest water area and seventh-largest water area percentage.


The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean it was founded by Roger Williams. It was an English colony from 1636 until 1707, and then a colony of Great Britain until the American Revolution in 1776, when it became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known simply as Rhode Island).During winter they had very harsh weather and cold summers ranging from 70 to the mid 70’s. They made money from fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. Other parts of Rhode Island made money by exporting agricultural and food products, selling maple syrup, livestock, rum, whiskey, and beer.

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.”)[1] Williams named the islands in the Narragansett Bay after Christian virtues: Patience, Prudence, and Hope Islands.[2]

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).[3]word meaning rhode island

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6][7] The Rhode Island colony was very progressive for the time, passing laws abolishing witchcraft trials, imprisonment for debt, most capital punishment, and slavery of both blacks and whites,[8][9] enacting the first law prohibiting slavery in America on May 18, 1652, more than 210 years before the Emancipation Proclamation.[10]

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.[6][7] During King Philip’s War (1675–1676), both sides regularly violated Rhode Island’s neutrality. The war’s largest battle occurred in Rhode Island on December 19, 1675 when a force of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified Narragansett village in the Great Swamp.[11] The Narragansetts also invaded and burned several towns in Rhode Island, including Providence. Roger Williams knew both Metacom (Philip) and Canonchet as children. He was aware of the tribe’s activities and promptly sent letters informing the Governor of Massachusetts of enemy movements. 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 killed King Philip (Metacom) in Mount Hope, Rhode Island.[6][7]

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.[12] 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.[citation needed] With this event, the dominion collapsed and Rhode Island resumed its previous government.[13]

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.[14]

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.[citation needed]

On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the 13 colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown,[15] and was the fourth to ratify the Articles of Confederation between the newly sovereign states on February 9, 1778.[16] It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution,[17] and initially refused to ratify it.[18] 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.[19]

The boundaries of the colony underwent numerous changes, including repeated disputes with Massachusetts and Connecticut Colonies who contested for control of territory later awarded to Rhode Island. Rhode Island’s early compacts did not stipulate the boundary on the eastern shore of Narrangansett Bay, and did not include any of Washington County, land that belonged to the Narragansett people. The original settlements were at Providence, Warwick, Newport, and Portsmouth, and the territory was expanded by purchasing land from the Narragansetts westward toward Connecticut and the smaller islands in Narrangasett Bay. Block Island was settled in 1637 after the Pequot War, became a part of the colony in 1664, and was incorporated in 1672 as New Shoreham.[20]

The western boundary with Connecticut was defined ambiguously as the “Narragansett River” in the Connecticut charter, which was decided by arbitrators in 1663 to be the Pawcatuck River from its mouth to the Ashaway River mouth, from which a northward line was drawn to the Massachusetts line. This resolved a long-standing dispute concerning the former Narragansett lands which were also claimed by Connecticut and Massachusetts, although the dispute continued until 1703, when the arbitration award was upheld. After repeated surveys, a mutually agreeable line was defined and surveyed in 1728.[20]

The eastern boundary was also an area of dispute with Massachusetts. Overlapping charters had awarded an area extending three miles inland to both Plymouth and Rhode Island east of Narragansett Bay; this area was awarded to Rhode Island in 1741, establishing Rhode Island’s jurisdiction over Barrington, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton, and Little Compton which Massachusetts had claimed. Also adjudicated in the 1741 decision was the award of most of Cumberland to Rhode Island from Massachusetts. The final establishment of the boundaries north of Barrington and east of the Blackstone River occurred almost a century after American independence,[20] requiring protracted litigation and multiple US Supreme Court decisions. In the final decision, a portion of Tiverton was awarded to Massachusetts to become part of Fall River, and eastern Pawtucket and East Providence were awarded to Rhode Island.

Rhode Island’s northern border with Massachusetts also underwent a number of changes. Massachusetts surveyed this line in 1642, but subsequent surveys by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut agreed that it was placed too far south.[20] In 1718-19, commissioners for Rhode Island and Massachusetts agreed on roughly that line anyway (except the section east of the Blackstone River, which remained disputed until 1741), and this is where the line remains today.

From 1640 to 1774, the population of Rhode Island grew from 300 to 59,607,[21][22] and would decline during the American Revolutionary War to 52,946 in 1780.[23] After William Coddington and a group of 13 other men bought Aquidneck Island from Narragansett Indians in 1639, the population of Newport, Rhode Island grew from 96 in 1640 to 7,500 in 1760 (making Newport the fifth-largest city in the Thirteen Colonies at the time),[24][25] and Newport grew further to 9,209 by 1774.[22] The black population in the colony grew from 25 in 1650 to 3,668 in 1774 (ranging between 3 and 10 percent of the population),[21][22] and like the state as a whole, declined to 2,671 (or 5 percent of the population) by 1780.[23] In 1774, Indians accounted for 1,479 of the inhabitants of the colony (or 3 percent).[22]

Rhode Island was the only New England colony without an established church.[26] In 1650, of the 109 places of worship with regular services in the eight British American colonies (including those without resident clergy), only 4 were located in Rhode Island (2 Baptist and 2 Congregational),[26] while there was a small Jewish enclave in Newport by 1658.[27] By 1750, the number of regular places of worship in Rhode Island grew to 50 (30 Baptist, 12 Congregational, 7 Anglican, and 1 Jewish),[28] with the colony gaining an additional 5 regular places of worship by 1776 (26 Baptist, 11 Friends, 9 Congregational, 5 Episcopal, 1 Jewish, 1 New Light Congregational, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 Sandemanian).[29]

Puritan mass migration to New England began following the issuance of the royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company by Charles I of England in 1629 and continued until the beginning of the English Civil War in 1642, while following the war’s conclusion in 1651, immigration to New England leveled off and the population growth owed almost entirely to natural increase rather than immigration or slave importations for the remainder of the 17th century and through the 18th century.[30][31] Mass migration from New England to the Province of New York and the Province of New Jersey began following the surrender of New Netherland by the Dutch Republic at Fort Amsterdam in 1664, and the population of New York would continue to expand more so by in-migration by families from New England (including Rhode Island) in the 18th century rather than from natural increase.[32][33][34]

Despite the initial Puritan mass migration also having a 2:1 male sex-imbalance like the British colonization of the Chesapeake Colonies,[35][36] unlike the Southern Colonies in the 17th century, most Puritan immigrants to New England migrated as families (as approximately two-thirds of the male Puritan immigrants to New England were married rather than unmarried indentured servants),[30][36] and in late 17th century New England, 3 percent of the population was over the age of 65 (while only 1 percent in the Chesapeake was in 1704).[37] By the American Revolutionary War, only 2 percent of the New England colonial labor force were bonded or convict laborers and another 2 percent were black slaves, while 9 percent of the colonial black population in New England were free persons of color (as compared with only 3 percent in the Southern Colonies).[31][38] In February 1784, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed a gradual emancipation law that increased the ratio of the free black population in Rhode Island to 78 percent by the 1790 U.S. Census and that would ultimately eliminate slavery in Rhode Island by 1842.[39][40][41]

Culture:Anglosphere



The Providence metropolitan area is a region extending into eight counties in two states, and is the 38th largest metropolitan area in the United States.[1][2] Anchored by the city of Providence, Rhode Island, it has an estimated population of 1,622,520, exceeding that of Rhode Island by slightly over 60%. The area covers almost all of Rhode Island. Thirty-eight of the 39 municipalities in the state are included. Only Westerly is not. The Providence Metropolitan Statistical Area also extends into southern Massachusetts with an average population density of 2300 per mi2 (888 per km2).[3][4][5] Its Gross Metropolitan Product is the country’s 42nd largest at $64.7 billion, just above the Gross State Product of the entire state of Hawaii.[6] Since 2006, the Providence metropolitan area has been officially included in the Greater Boston Combined Statistical Area (CSA), the sixth-largest CSA in the country, with over eight million residents.[1]

The Providence metropolitan area contains towns from all five counties in Rhode Island and one county in Massachusetts, including:

The New Bedford metro area is not included in the Providence NECTA, but is included in the Combined NECTA[7] and MSA definitions.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates a commuter rail connecting the metropolitan area to Boston. There are commuter rail stations in Providence, South Attleboro, and Attleboro. An extension of the commuter rail to T.F. Green airport in Warwick and Wickford Junction in North Kingstown, Rhode Island was completed in 2012. Extensions to Fall River and New Bedford have also been planned. Amtrak provides regional rail service to the Providence and Kingston train stations as well.
word meaning rhode island

Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA), which has its hub in downtown Providence manages local bus transit for the state, serving 35 out of 39 Rhode Island communities. RIPTA operates 55 bus lines as well as Flex service and paratransit service.[8] Ferry services link Block Island, Prudence Island, and Hog Island to the Rhode Island mainland. Additionally, there is a seasonal ferry service between Providence and Newport from late May to mid-October. Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SRTA) provides local bus service in the Massachusetts locales of Fall River and New Bedford. Greater Attleboro Transit Authority (GATRA) serves the Attleboros and surrounding towns. It also provides connections to RIPTA in Pawtucket, R.I.

The major airport is T. F. Green Airport in Warwick, though Logan International Airport in Boston is also used. The MBTA Providence/Stoughton Line passes through T.F. Green and connects the airport to Providence and Boston, offering additional airport flexibility in the Greater Boston Area.

Two interstates connect major population centers in the region: 95, which runs diagonally across Rhode Island, and 195, which runs east from Providence into Massachusetts. The auxiliary interstate 295 provides a bypass around Providence.

Also included are very large concentrations of Lusophone populations across the region with the largest density being from East Providence to New Bedford. The two Bristol counties (RI, and MA) are the only two counties in America where Portuguese-Americans form a plurality of the Population.[11]


The following 4 entries include the term rhode.

: any of a U.S. breed of general-purpose domestic chickens having a long heavy body, smooth yellow or reddish legs, and rich brownish-red plumage

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: any of a U.S. breed of domestic chickens resembling Rhode Island Reds but having pure white plumage

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word meaning rhode island

state in the northeastern U.S. surrounding Narragansett Bay and bordering the Atlantic; capital Providence area 1212 square miles (3139 square kilometers), population 1,052,567

See the full definition

: a lawn grass (Agrostis tenuis) of eastern North America with very slender culms

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Home UK English Rhode Island

A state in the north-eastern US, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean; population 1,050,788 (est. 2008); capital, Providence. Settled by England in the 17th century, it was one of the original thirteen states of the Union and ratified the US Constitution in 1790.

/ ˈdarɪəʊl /

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U.S. state, the region is traditionally said to have been named by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano when he passed through in 1524, based on an imagined similarity between modern Block Island and the Greek Isle of Rhodes. More likely from Roodt Eylandt, the name Dutch explorer Adriaen Block gave to Block Island c. 1614, literally “red island,” so called for the color of its cliffs. Under this theory, the name was altered by 17c. English settlers by influence of the Greek island name (see Rhodes), and then extended to the mainland part of the colony. Block Island later (by 1685) was renamed for the Dutch explorer.

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