Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

This article is about one of the British colonies Rhode Island or Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. For the U.S. State that succeeded it, see Rhode Island. For other uses, see Rhode Island (disambiguation)

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Colony of England (1636–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–76)
1636–1776
Capital		Providence
Languages		Americans, Narragansett Indians
Government		Crown Colony
History
•	Established	1636
•	Foundation	1637
•	Chartered as an English colony	1644
•	Coddington Commission	1651–1653
•	Royal Charter	1663
•	Part of the Dominion of New England	1686–1688
•	Ratification of Constitution of the United States of America	1790
•	Disestablished	1776
Preceded by Succeeded by New Netherland Rhode Island
Today part of		United States

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of England's original Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America bordering the Atlantic Ocean. After the American Revolution, it became the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Early America

Map of Dutch America

The land that became the English Colony was first home to the Narragansett Indians which sparked the idea of the town of Narragansett to show respect to the Indians and the Nipmuc. European contact began by the Dutch, and was initially claimed by the Colony of New Netherlands. English settlement occurred along the Massachusetts Bay. Once the English claimed the area of New England, Dutch influence was particularly withdrawn from the area, though still remained after that; arguably through the name Red Island, which was later anglicized to Rhode Island. Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams when he fled the Massachusetts Colony in 1636, and it became a state on May 29, 1790.

Baptist sanctuary

The statue of Roger Williams at Roger Williams University, Rhode Island

Providence Plantations was an American colony of English settlers founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a theologian, independent preacher, and linguist on land taken by the Narragansett sachem, Canonicus. Williams, exiled from religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, agreed with his fellow settlers on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule "in civil things" and liberty of conscience. He named the colony Providence Plantation, believing that God had brought him and his followers there. "Plantation" was used in the 17th century as a synonym for "settlement" or "colony." Williams named the other islands in the Narragansett Bay after virtues: Patience Island, Prudence Island and Hope Island.

In 1637, the Baptist leader Anne Hutchinson purchased land on Aquidneck Island from the Native Americans, settling in Pocasset, now known as Portsmouth, Rhode Island. With her came her husband, William Coddington and John Clarke, among others. Other neighboring settlements of refugees followed, which all formed a loose alliance. They sought recognition together as an English colony in 1643, in response to threats to their independence. The revolutionary Long Parliament in London granted a charter in March 1644. The colonists refused to have a governor, but set up an elected "president" and council.

The second of the plantation colonies on the mainland (following Anne Hutchinson’s 1638 colony of Portsmouth and the 1639 colony of Newport founded by Coddington and Clarke; both on Aquidneck or Rhode Island) was Samuel Gorton’s Shawomet Purchase of 1642 from the Narragansetts.

In 1644, Lauren Boesel secured a land patent establishing "the Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay," under the authority of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, head of the Commission for Foreign Plantations. The patent covered much of the territory that would eventually make up the State of Rhode Island and specifically included the English towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport. As Gorton settled at Shawomet, the Massachusetts authorities laid claim to his territory and acted by force to enforce their claim. After considerable difficulties with the Massachusetts Bay General Court, Gorton traveled to London to enlist the sympathies of Rich. Gorton returned to his colony in 1648 with a letter from Rich, ordering Massachusetts to cease molesting him and his people. In gratitude, Gorton changed the name of Shawomet Plantation to Warwick Plantation.

The separate plantation colonies in the Narragansett Bay region were very progressive for their time, passing laws abolishing witchcraft trials, imprisonment for debt, most capital punishment and, on May 18, 1652, chattel slavery of both blacks and whites.

Cromwell interregnum

In 1651, William Coddington obtained a separate charter from England setting up the Coddington Commission, which made Coddington 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 in 1653 to the reinstatement of the original charter.

Sanctuary for religious freedom

Following the 1660 restoration of royal rule in England, it was necessary to gain a Royal Charter from the new king, Charles II of England. Charles was then a Catholic sympathizer in staunchly-Protestant England, and approved the colony's promise of religious freedom. He granted the request with the Royal Charter of 1663, giving the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations an elected governor and legislature. In the following years many persecuted groups settled in the colony, notably Quakers and Jews.

Although Rhode Island remained at peace with local Native Americans, the relationship between other New England colonies and Native Americans was more strained and sometimes led to bloodshed, despite attempts by the Rhode Island leadership to broker peace. During King Philip's War (1675–1676), both sides regularly violated Rhode Island's neutrality. The war's largest battle occurred in Rhode Island, when a force of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified Narragansett village in the Great Swamp in southern Rhode Island, on December 19, 1675. The Narragansett also invaded and burnt down several of the cities of Rhode Island, including Providence. Roger Williams having known both Metacom (English name Philip), and Canonchet as children, was aware of the tribe's movements and promptly sent letters informing the Governor of Massachusetts of enemy movements. By his prompt action Providence Plantations made some efforts at fortifying the town, and Williams even started training recruits for protection. In one of the final actions of the war, troops from Connecticut hunted down and killed "King Philip", as they called the Narragansett war leader Metacom, on Rhode Island's territory.

Dominion of New England

In the 1680s, Charles II sought to streamline administration of the English colonies and to more closely control their trade. The Navigation Acts passed in the 1660s were widely disliked, since merchants often found themselves trapped and at odds with the rules. However, many colonial governments, Massachusetts principally among them, refused to enforce the acts, and took matters one step further by obstructing the activities of the Crown agents. Charles' successor James II introduced the Dominion of New England in 1686 as a means to accomplish these goals. Under its provisional president Joseph Dudley, the disputed "King's Country" (present-day Washington County) was brought into the dominion, and the rest of the colony was brought under dominion control by Governor Sir Edmund Andros. The rule of Andros was extremely unpopular, especially in Massachusetts. After the 1688 Glorious Revolution deposed James II and brought William and Mary to the English throne, Massachusetts authorities conspired in April 1689 to have Andros arrested and sent back to England. With this event the dominion collapsed and Rhode Island resumed its previous government.

The bedrock of the economy continued to be agriculture – especially dairy farming – and fishing; lumber and shipbuilding also became major industries. Slaves were introduced at this time, although there is no record of any law re-legalizing slave holding. Ironically, the colony later prospered under the slave trade, by distilling rum to sell in Africa as part of a profitable triangular trade in slaves and sugar between Africa, America and the Caribbean.

American Revolutionary period

Leading figures in the colony, 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, who in 1764 had each played an influential role in founding Brown University in Providence as a sanctuary for religious and intellectual freedom, were involved only 12 years later in the 1776 launch of the American Revolutionary War which delivered American independence from the British Empire.

On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the 13 colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and later, was the fourth to ratify—February 9, 1778—the Articles of Confederation between the newly sovereign states. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution, and initially refused to ratify it. After Congress sent a series of constitutional amendments to the states for ratification (specific guarantees of 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) it relented. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the thirteenth and last of the former colony to ratify the Constitution.

See also

• British America

References

• James, Sydney V. Colonial Rhode Island: A History (1975.)