Rhode Island State
History
 

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Pre-Colonization

Native American inhabitants, including the Narragansett tribe and the closely related Niantic tribe, occupied most of the area now known as Rhode Island. Most of the Native Americans were decimated by European diseases and warfare with the Europeans. The Narragansett language died out for many years but was preserved in Roger Williams' the "A Key into the Languages of America." In the twenty-first century, the tribe remains a federally recognized entity in Rhode Island.

Colonial Era

In 1614 the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block visited the island that is now called Block Island, and by 1625 the Dutch West India Company set up a temporary trading post on Dutch Island in Narragansett Bay to trade with local Native Americans. In 1635 William Blackstone arrived in Rhode Island in the area now known as Cumberland, and he became the first permanent European settler in Rhode Island, arriving a year before Roger Williams founded the colony in 1636.

In 1636 Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, settled at the tip of Narragansett Bay. He called the site Providence and declared it a place of religious freedom. This is the article of agreement Roger Williams and others made, and every person who decided to live in Providence had to sign it: “We, whose names are hereunder written, being desirous to inhabit the town of Providence, do promise to submit ourselves, in active or passive obedience, to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good by the body in an orderly way by the major consent of the inhabitance, masters of families, incorporated together into a township, and such others as they shall admit into the same only in civil things.”

Originally, Rhode Island was an extra-legal self-governing colony, established without sanction from authorities in London. In 1644, representatives from Rhode Island obtained a charter from Parliament. The 1644 charter, however, was issued during the English Civil War without the consent of King Charles I, who was fighting a war against Parliament. In 1660, following the Restoration of Charles II to the throne, concern grew regarding the validity of the colonial charter issued by Parliament. In 1662, Rhode Island dispatched representatives to London to obtain a charter. The following year, King Charles II granted Rhode Island a charter giving the colony a remarkable degree of self-government. By the eighteenth century, Rhode Island (along with Connecticut) was one of only two charter colony remaining in British North America.

In 1637, Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts for committing heresy. She and some others, including William Coddington and John Clarke, founded the town of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island. In 1639, Coddington left Portsmouth and founded Newport on Aquidneck Island.

In that same year a formal government was established for the island. William Coddington was the first governor and Philip Sherman was the first Secretary. In 1643 Samuel Gorton founded Shawomet, which is now called Warwick. In 1644 the name of Aquidneck Island was changed to Rhode Island.

John Clarke was granted a Charter by King Charles II in 1663 for Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which effectively united the two colonies into one. Under the terms of the charter, only landowners could vote. Before the Industrial Revolution, when most people were employed as farmers, this was considered democratic. The original charter was used as the state constitution until 1842.

In 1664, the seal of the colony was adopted. It pictured an anchor and the word HOPE.

The relationship between the New Englanders and the Native Americans was at first strained, but did not result in much bloodshed. The largest tribes that lived near Rhode island were the Wampanoag, Pequots, Narragansett, and Nipmuck. One native named Squanto, from the Wampanoag tribe, stayed with the pilgrims and taught them many valuable skills needed to survive in the area. He also helped greatly with the eventual peace between the colonists and the natives.

Roger Williams had won the respect of his colonial neighbors for his skill in keeping the powerful Narragansett on friendly terms with local white settlers. In 1637, the Narragansett were even persuaded to form an alliance with the English in carrying out an attack that nearly extinguished the warlike Pequots. However, this peace did not last long. By 1670 even the friendly tribes who had greeted Williams and the Pilgrims became estranged from the colonists, and smell of war began to cover the New England countryside.

The most important and traumatic event in 17th century Rhode Island was King Philip's War,which occurred during 1675–1676. King Philip (his British nickname, his real name was Metacomet) was the chief of the Wampanoag Indians. The settlers of Portsmouth had purchased their land from his father, Massasoit. King Philip rebelled against the English. The first attacks were around Narragansett Bay but spread throughout New England.

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 still managed to retain possession of it until Andros was deposed and the Dominion was dissolved. When William of Orange became King in the Glorious Revolution of 1689, Rhode Island colonial government resumed under the Charter.

Revolution and Industrialization: 1770-1860

Rhode Island was the first of the British colonies in America to declare its independence on May 4, 1776. British naval forces controlled Narragansett Bay for much of the Revolution, periodically raiding the islands and the mainland and occupying Newport from 1777 to 1778. The Battle of Rhode Island was fought during the summer of 1778 and was an unsuccessful attempt to expel the British from Narragansett Bay. The Marquis de Lafayette, however, called the action the "best fought" of War. The following year, the British, wanting to concentrate their forces in New York, abandoned Newport.

In 1780, the French under Rochambeau landed in Newport and for the rest of the war Newport was the base of the French forces in the United States. 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.

Rhode Island was the last of the original 13 states to ratify the United States Constitution (May 29, 1790)—doing so after being threatened of having its exports taxed as a foreign nation. Rural resistance to the Constitution was strong in Rhode Island. In 1789 anti-federalist politician and revolutionary general, William West, led an armed force of 1,000 men to Providence to oppose a celebration of the 9th state ratifying the Constitution. Civil war was narrowly averted by a compromise limiting the Fourth of July celebration.

In 1790 English immigrant, Samuel Slater founded the first textile mill in the United States in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (Slater Mill), and Slater became known as the father of the American industrial revolution. During the nineteenth century Rhode Island became one of the most industrialized states in the United States with large numbers of textile factories.

As the Industrial Revolution moved large numbers of workers into the cities, a permanently landless, and therefore voteless class developed. By 1829, 60% of the state's free white males were ineligible to vote.

Several attempts had been made to address this problem, but none passed. In 1842 Thomas Dorr drafted a liberal constitution which was passed by popular referendum. However the conservative sitting governor, Samuel Ward King, opposed the people's wishes, leading to the Dorr Rebellion. Although this collapsed, a modified version of the constitution was passed in November, which allowed any white male to vote that owned land or could pay a $1 poll tax.

Slavery in Rhode Island 1652-1850

In addition to industrialization, Rhode Island was heavily involved in the slave trade during the post-Revolution era. Slavery was extant in RI as early as 1600s. In 1652 Rhode Island passed the first abolition law in the thirteen colonies, banning African slavery. The law was not enforced by the end of the century. By 1774, the slave population of RI was 6.3%, nearly twice as high as any other New England colony. In the late Eighteenth century, several Rhode Island merchant families (most notably the Browns, for whom Brown University is named) began actively engaging in the triangle slave trade. In the years after the Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled between 60 and 90 percent of the American trade in African slaves.

In February 1784 the Rhode Island Legislature passed a compromise measure for gradual emancipation of slaves in Rhode Island. All children of slaves born after March 1 were to be "apprentices," the girls to become free at 18, the boys at 21. By 1840 only 5 African Americans were reportedly enslaved in Rhode Island.

Civil War to Progressive Era: 1860-1929

During the Civil War, Rhode Island was one of the Union states. Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men, of which 1,685 died. On the home front, Rhode Island, along with the other northern states, used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials it needed to win the war. Rhode Island's continued growth and modernization led to the creation of an urban mass transit system, and improved health and sanitation programs. After the war, in 1866, Rhode Island abolished racial segregation throughout the state. Post-war immigration increased the population. From the 1860s to the 1880s, most of the immigrants were from England, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and Quebec. Towards the end of the century however, most immigrants were from South and Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean. At the turn of the century, Rhode Island had a booming economy, which fed the demand for immigration. In the years that lead up to World War I, Rhode Island's constitution remained reactionary, in contrast to the more progressive reforms that were occurring in the rest of the country. 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.

In the 1920s and 30s, rural Rhode Island saw a surge in Ku Klux Klan membership largely among the Swamp Yankee population in reaction to the large waves of immigrants moving to the state. The Klan is believed to be responsible for burning the Watchman Institute in Scituate, Rhode Island, which was a school for African American children.

Great Depression to Present: 1929-2007

Since the 1935 "Bloodless Revolution" in which Governor Theodore Francis Green and Democrat majorities in the state House and Senate replaced a Republican dominance that had existed since the middle of the 19th century, the Rhode Island Democratic Party has dominated state politics. Since then, the Speaker of the House, always a Democrat, has been one of the most powerful figures in government. The Democratic Party represented 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 elected occasional "good government" reform candidates who criticize the state's high taxes and the 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.

Although enormously well-liked, Cianci has had his share of legal problems. In 1984 he pleaded no contest to assault and received a five-year suspended sentence. He spent the rest of the 80's hosting a radio talk show. In 1991 he ran for mayor and was reelected. In 2002, however, he was indicted for racketeering, conspiracy, and extortion and is serving a five-year sentence.

Despite a perceived culture of corruption, Rhode Islanders have overwhelmingly supported and re-elected Democrats to positions of authority, where issues involving education, health care, and liberal causes are promoted.

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