Rhode Island, R.I.
Rhode Island – Newport – R.I.
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west and Massachusetts to the north and east, and it shares a water boundary with New York’s Long Island to the southwest.
Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other state and the convention. The state was also the last to ratify the United States Constitution.
Rhode Island’s official nickname is “The Ocean State”, a reference to the state’s geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 14% of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km2), but its total area is significantly larger.
Despite the name, most of Rhode Island is on the mainland United States. The official name of the state, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, derives from the merger of two colonies. Providence Plantations was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the area now known as the City of Providence. Rhode Island, the other colonial settlement, was founded in the area of present-day Newport, on Aquidneck Island, the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay.The official and historical name of Aquidneck Island is Rhode Island, and whence the state gets its name. The island is now referred to as Aquidneck Island to differentiate it from the state.
Rhode Island.
It is unclear how Aquidneck Island came to be known as Rhode Island. In 1524, the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay, which he likened to the Greek island of Rhodes. Although it is unclear to which island Verrazzano was referring, the pilgrims who later colonized the area decided to apply the moniker “Rhode Island” to Aquidneck Island. The earliest known use of the name “Rhode Island” 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 Ile of Rods or Rhod-Island.” The name “Isle of Rodes” is found used in a legal document as late as 1646.
Rhode Island and Newport
Another popular origin theory is based on the fact that Adriaen Block, during his expeditions in the 1610s, passed by Aquidneck Island, described in a 1625 account of his travels as “an island of reddish appearance” (in 17th-century Dutch, “een rodlich Eylande”). Dutch maps from as early as 1659 call the island “Roode Eylant”, or Red Island. Historians have theorized that the island was named by the Dutch (possibly by Adriaen Block himself) for either the red autumn foliage or red clay on portions of the shore.
Roger Williams, a theologian who was one of the first to advocate freedom of religion, separation of church and state, abolition of slavery, and equal treatment to Native Americans, was forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeking religious and political tolerance, he and others founded “Providence Plantations” as a free proprietary colony. “Providence” referred to the divine providence and “plantations” referred to an English term for a colony (people leave one place and are “planted” in another). Thus, this name bore no relation to the later Southern and Caribbean Islands slave plantations. Later on, Providence Plantations and Rhode Island were merged to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
“Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” is the longest official name of any state in the Union. On June 25, 2009, the General Assembly voted to allow the people to decide whether to keep the name or drop “Providence Plantations” due to the misperception that the name relates to slavery.The referendum election was held on this subject during the November 2, 2010 elections, and the people overwhelmingly voted (78% to 22%) to keep the original name.
Rhode Island’s official state nickname is “The Ocean State”, a reference to the state’s geography (since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 30% of its total area.)
