Rhode Island

Template:US state

Rhode Island, officially named 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. Despite being called Rhode Island in common usage, most of the state lies on the mainland. Providence Plantations refers to that area, while Rhode Island is actually the official name for Aquidneck Island.

Having a history of staunch independence, Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen original American colonies to declare independence from British rule and the last to ratify the United States Constitution.

Rhode Island has long held the nickname of "Little Rhody," though the state has officially adopted the nickname of "the Ocean State," as nearly one-tenth of Rhode Island's inland area is covered by salt water, and no part of the state is more than a 45-minute drive from the water's edge.

Name origin

Verrazzano Monument, Providence, RI

In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to visit any part of what is now Rhode Island. He came to what is now Block Island and named it "Luisa" after Louise of Savoy, Queen Mother of France. When the founders of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations surveyed the land, they thought that Aquidneck Island was the place. A mistake occurred in 1614, when Luisa was charted by the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, after whom Luisa was renamed by the Dutch West India Company. The official explanation is that Adriaen Block named the area "Roodt Eylandt" meaning "red island" in reference to the red clay that lined the shore, and that the name was later anglicized when the region came under British rule.

Another hypothesis on the origin of the name is that when Verrazzano sailed into Narragansett Bay, the many islands reminded him of the Aegean Sea, and thus he named it for Rhodes. This is what is said on the Verrazzano Monument in downtown Providence.

Geography

Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads

Block Island bluffs

Terrain Map of Rhode Island

The smallest of the 50 states, Rhode Island covers an area of approximately 1,545 square miles (4,002 km²) and is bordered on the north and east by Massachusetts, on the west by Connecticut, and on the south by Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. It shares a water border with New York State between Block Island and Long Island. The mean elevation of the state is 200 feet (60 m).

Rhode Island is mostly flat. Its highest natural point is Jerimoth Hill, only 812 feet (247 m) above sea level.

Rhode Island has two distinct natural regions. Eastern Rhode Island contains the lowlands of Narragansett Bay, while western Rhode Island forms part of the New England Upland. Narragansett Bay is a major feature of the state's topography. Block Island lies approximately 12 miles (19 km) off the southern coast of the mainland. Within the Bay, there are over 30 islands. The largest is Aquidneck Island, shared by the municipalities of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth. The second-largest island is Conanicut; the third-largest is Prudence.

A rare type of rock called Cumberlandite, found only in Rhode Island (specifically in the town of Cumberland), is the state rock.

Climate

Rhode Island is an example of a warm summer humid continental climate with hot, rainy summers and chilly winters. The highest temperature recorded in Rhode Island was 104°F (40°C], recorded on August 2, 1975, in Providence. The lowest temperature in Rhode Island, -23°F, on January 11, 1942, at Kingston. Monthly average temperatures range from a high of 82°F (28°C) to a low of 20°F (-7° C).

History

Colonial era

In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni de Verrazzano traversed the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, searching for an all-water route through North America to China. In March of that year, he left what is now New York Harbor and headed east until he discovered what was later called Block Island. Natives guided him into what is now Newport Harbor. He remained for two weeks while his crew surveyed the bay and the surrounding mainland. In early May 1524, Verrazzano departed to renew his search for a Northwest Passage.

In 1614, the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block visited the island that is now called Block Island. Native American inhabitants included the Narragansett tribe, occupying most of the area, and the closely related Niantic tribe. Most of the Native Americans were decimated by introduced diseases such as smallpox, intertribal warfare, and the disastrous King Philip's War, but remnants of the Niantic merged into the Narragansett tribe, where they remain on a federally recognized reservation.

In 1636, Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, settled at the tip of Narragansett Bay. He called the site Providence and declared it a place of religious freedom. It was sometimes referred to as "Rogue's Island" because of the people it attracted.

The following year, Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts for criticizing the clergy there. She and some others, including William Coddington and John Clark, founded the town of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island. In 1639, Coddington left Portsmouth and founded Newport, also on Aquidneck Island.

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

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

The relationship between the New Englanders and the Native Americans was strained, and caused some bloodshed. On December 19, 1675, colonist militia from Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Rhode Island massacred about 350 Narragansetts in the Battle of the Great Swamp during King Philip's War. The largest tribes that lived near Rhode Island were the Wampanoag, Pequots, Narragansett, and Nipmuck.

Roger Williams had kept the powerful Narragansetts on friendly terms with local white settlers. The Narragansetts were even persuaded to form an alliance with the English in 1637, carrying out an attack that nearly extinguished the Pequots. This peace did not last long, however, and by 1670, even the friendly tribes who had greeted Williams and the Pilgrims became estranged from the colonists, and conflicts erupted.

The most important and traumatic event in seventeenth-century Rhode Island was King Philip's War, which occurred during 1675–1676. King Philip (also known as Metacomet) was the chief of the Wampanoag tribe. The settlers of Portsmouth had purchased their land from his father, Massasoit. King Philip rebelled against the English. The first attacks were around Narrangansett Bay, but they soon spread throughout New England. The war culminated in Rhode Island in the Great Swamp Fight, during which the colonial militia destroyed the Narragansett Indian village in the Great Swamp in southern Rhode Island. Metacomet himself was eventually captured and slain.

Revolution and industrialization: 1770–1860

Rhode Island's tradition of independence and dissent gave it a prominent role in the American Revolution. In 1772, the first bloodshed of the American Revolution took place in Rhode Island when a band of Providence residents attacked a grounded British ship for enforcing unpopular British trade regulations. This incident would come to be known as the Gaspee Affair. Keeping with its culture of defiance, Rhode Island was the first of the original thirteen colonies to declare its independence from Great Britain (May 4, 1776,) and the last to ratify the Constitution, doing the latter only after being threatened with having its exports taxed as a foreign nation. During the Revolution, the British occupied Newport. A combined Franco-American force fought to drive them off of Aquidneck Island. Portsmouth was the site of the first African American military unit, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, to fight for the U.S. in the Battle of Rhode Island August 29, 1778. The arrival of a far superior French fleet forced the British to scuttle their own ships, rather than surrender them to the French.

The Industrial Revolution began in America in 1789 when Moses Brown invested in a water-powered textile mill designed and run by Samuel Slater. As the Industrial Revolution moved large numbers of workers into the cities, a permanently landless, and therefore voteless, class developed. By 1829, 60% of the state's free white males were ineligible to vote.

Several attempts had been made to address this problem, but none were successful. In 1842, Thomas Dorr drafted a liberal constitution which was passed by popular referendum. However, the conservative sitting governor, Samuel Ward King, opposed the people's wishes, leading to the Dorr Rebellion. Although this was not a success, a modified version of the constitution was passed in November, which allowed any white male to vote if he owned land or could pay a $1 poll tax.

In addition to industrialization, Rhode Island was heavily involved in the slave trade during the post-revolution era. Slavery was extant in the state as early as 1652, and by 1774, the slave population of Rhode Island was 6.3%, nearly twice as high as any other New England colony. In the late 18th century, several Rhode Island merchant families began actively engaging in the triangle slave trade. Notable among these was brothers John and Nicholas of the Brown family, for whom Brown University is named, although some Browns, particularly Moses, became prominent abolitionists. In the years after the Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled between 60% and 90% of the American trade in African slaves.

Civil War to Progressive Era: 1860–1929

During the Civil War, Rhode Island was the first Union state to send troops in response to President Abraham Lincoln's request for help from the states. On the home front, Rhode Island, along with the other northern states, used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials it needed to win the war. In addition, Newport was the temporary home of the United States Naval Academy during the war.

Rhode Island's continued growth and modernization led to the creation of an urban mass transit system and improved health and sanitation programs. In 1866, Rhode Island abolished racial segregation throughout the state.

Post-war immigration increased the population. From the 1860s to the 1880s, most immigrants were from England, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and Quebec, Canada. Toward the end of the century, however, most immigrants were from 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 1920s and 1930s, rural Rhode Island saw a surge in Ku Klux Klan membership, largely in reaction to the large waves of immigrants moving to the state.

Great Depression to present: 1929-

In the twentieth century, the state continued to grow, though the decline in industry devastated many urban areas. These areas were impacted further, as with the rest of the country's urban areas, by construction of Interstate highways through city cores and suburbanization.

File:Providence old.JPG

Providence in the mid-20th century

While known for old school politics and corruption, Rhode Island also has comprehensive health insurance for low-income children, and a large social safety net. Despite this, 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 homeless in Rhode Island.

In 2003, a nightclub fire in West Warwick claimed one hundred lives and caught national attention. The fire resulted in criminal sentences.

Law and government

The capital of Rhode Island is Providence. The state's current governor is Donald L. Carcieri (R), and its United States senators are Jack Reed (D) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D). Rhode Island's two United States congressmen are Patrick J. Kennedy and Jim Langevin.

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.

Because Rhode Island's population barely crosses the threshold for additional votes in both the federal House 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.

Federally, Rhode Island is one of the most reliably Democratic states during presidential elections, regularly giving the Democratic nominees one of their best showings. In 1980, Rhode Island was one of only six states to vote against Ronald Reagan. Reagan did carry Rhode Island in his 49-state victory in 1984, but the state was the second weakest of the states Reagan won. Rhode Island was the Democrats' leading state in 1988 and 2000, and second-best in 1996 and 2004. 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.

Rhode Island has abolished capital punishment, making it one of 15 states that have done so. Rhode Island abolished the death penalty very early, just after Michigan (the first state to abolish it), and carried out its last execution in the 1840s. Rhode Island is one of two states in which prostitution is legal, provided it takes place indoors, though there have been recent efforts to change this.

File:Newport Rhode Island USA.jpg

A historic side street in Newport

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

In common with many other New England states, some Rhode Island cities and towns are further partitioned into villages that reflect historic townships, which were later combined for administrative purposes.

Economy

Textron's headquarters, in the company of One Financial Plaza and the Rhode Island Hospital Trust building

The Blackstone River Valley is known as the "Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution". It was in Pawtucket that Samuel Slater set up Slater Mill in 1793, 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 the American South. 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 amount of abandoned factories - many of them now being used for low-income or elderly housing, or converted into offices or condominiums. Today, much of the economy of state is based in services, particularly healthcare and education, and still to some extent, manufacturing.

The headquarters of Citizens Financial Group, a 160 billion dollar banking corporation which operates in many parts of the US, is located in Providence. The Fortune 500 companies CVS and Textron are based in Woonsocket and Providence, respectively. FM Global, Hasbro, American Power Conversion, Nortek, and Amica Mutual Insurance are all Fortune 1000 companies based in Rhode Island. The GTECH Corporation is headquartered in Providence.

Rhode Island's 2000 total gross state product was $33 billion, placing it 45^th in the nation. Its 2000 per capita personal income was $29,685, 16^th in the nation. Rhode Island has the lowest level of energy consumption per capita of any state.

Health services are Rhode Island's largest industry. Second is tourism, supporting 39,000 jobs, with tourism-related sales at $3.26 billion in the year 2000. The third-largest industry is manufacturing. Its industrial outputs are fashion jewelry, fabricated metal products, electrical equipment, machinery, shipbuilding and boatbuilding. Rhode Island's agricultural outputs are nursery stock, vegetables, dairy products and eggs.

The state's taxes are appreciably higher than neighboring states. Governor Carcieri has claimed that this higher tax rate has had an inhibitory effect on business growth in the state and is calling for reductions to increase the competitiveness of the state's business environment. Rhode Island's income tax is based on 25% of the payer's federal income tax payment.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1790	68,825		–
1800	69,122		0.4%
1810	76,931		11.3%
1820	83,059		8.0%
1830	97,199		17.0%
1840	108,830		12.0%
1850	147,545		35.6%
1860	174,620		18.4%
1870	217,353		24.5%
1880	276,531		27.2%
1890	345,506		24.9%
1900	428,556		24.0%
1910	542,610		26.6%
1920	604,397		11.4%
1930	687,497		13.7%
1940	713,346		3.8%
1950	791,896		11.0%
1960	859,488		8.5%
1970	946,725		10.1%
1980	947,154		0.0%
1990	1,003,464		5.9%
2000	1,048,319		4.5%
Est. 2007	1,057,832		0.9%

Demographics of Rhode Island (csv)
By race	White	Black	AIAN	Asian	NHPI
AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native   -   NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
2000 (total population)	90.96%	6.45%	1.07%	2.74%	0.19%
2000 (Hispanic only)	7.14%	1.42%	0.18%	0.08%	0.07%
2005 (total population)	90.16%	7.07%	1.09%	3.07%	0.21%
2005 (Hispanic only)	9.12%	1.49%	0.22%	0.08%	0.08%
Growth 2000-2005 (total population)	1.76%	12.52%	4.91%	15.09%	9.93%
Growth 2000-2005 (non-Hispanic only)	-0.75%	13.80%	1.03%	15.44%	8.90%
Growth 2000-2005 (Hispanic only)	31.21%	7.98%	24.03%	3.78%	11.64%

A corridor of population can be seen from the Providence area, stretching northwest following the Blackstone River to Woonsocket, where nineteenth-century mills drive industry and development.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005 Rhode Island had an estimated population of 1,076,189, which is a decrease of 3,727, or 0.3%, from the prior year and an increase of 27,870, or 2.7%, since the year 2000.

Rhode Island Population Density Map

The six largest ancestry groups in Rhode Island are: Irish (19%), Italian (19%), French Canadian (17.3%), English (12%), Hispanic 11% (predominantly Puerto Rican and Dominican, with smaller Central American populations), [1] Portuguese (8.7%).

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 8.07% of the population aged 5 and over speaks Spanish at home, while 3.80% speaks Portuguese, 1.96% French, and 1.39% Italian [2].

Rhode Island has a higher percentage of Americans of Portuguese ancestry (who dominate Bristol County), including Portuguese Americans and Cape Verdean Americans than any other state in the nation. French Canadians form a large part of northern Providence County, whereas Irish Americans have a strong presence in Newport and Kent counties. Yankees 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 form significant and growing communities in Rhode Island.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of Rhode Island are:

• Christian – 87.5%
  • Roman Catholic – 63.6%,
  • Protestant – 21.6%
    • Baptist – 6.3%
    • Episcopalian – 5.1%
    • Protestant-other – 3.2%,
    • Protestant, no denomination – 7%,
  • Other Christian – 2.3%
• Jewish – 1.6%,
• Muslim – 0.4%
• Self-identified non-religious – 6%,
• Other religious – 4.5%;.

Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Roman Catholics in the nation mainly due to large Irish, Italian, and French Canadian immigration in the past (these three groups form roughly 55-60 percent of the state population); recently, significant Portuguese (though Portuguese communities have existed since the mid nineteenth century) and Hispanic communities (these two groups form roughly 20% of the state population) have also been established in the state. Rhode Island and Utah are the only two states in which a majority of the population are members of a single religious body.

Culture

The Rhode Island state quarter, depicting a vintage sailboat sailing in front of the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge

Nicknamed "The Ocean State," the nautical nature of Rhode Island's geography pervades its culture. Newport Harbor, in particular, holds many pleasure boats.

Additionally, the large number of beaches in Washington County (known locally as South County) lures many Rhode Islanders south for summer vacation.

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. Although the power of organized crime has greatly diminished in Rhode Island over the last 20 years, its residents are still stigmatized by popular perceptions of rampant graft and corruption that have haunted the state for decades.

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

Rhode Island State Symbols

Living Symbols
-Animal	{{{Animal}}}
-Bird	Rhode Island Red Chicken
-Butterfly	{{{Butterfly}}}
-Fish	Striped bass
-Flower	Violet
-Furbearer	{{{Furbearer}}}
-Grass	{{{Grass}}}
-Insect	{{{Insect}}}
-Reptile	{{{Reptile}}}
-Tree	Red maple
-Wildflower	{{{Wildflower}}}
Beverage	Coffee milk
Capital	{{{Capital}}}
Colors	{{{Colors}}}
Dance	{{{Dance}}}
Fossil	{{{Fossil}}}
Gemstone	{{{Gemstone}}}
Mineral	Bowenite
Motto	{{{Motto}}}
Musical Instrument	{{{MusicalInstrument}}}
Neckwear	{{{Neckwear}}}
Nickname	{{{Nickname}}}
Rock	Cumberlandite
Game	{{{Game}}}
Ship(s)	{{{Ships}}}
Song	Rhode Island, Rhode Island, It's for Me
Soil	Narragansett
Tartan	Rhode Island Tartan
Waltz	{{{Waltz}}}

Famous firsts in Rhode Island

• Rhode Island enacted the first law prohibiting slavery in North America on May 18, 1652.
• Slater Mill in Pawtucket was the first commercially successful cotton-spinning mill with a fully mechanized power system in America and was the birth place of the Industrial Revolution in the US.
• The oldest Fourth of July parade in the country is still held annually in Bristol.
• The first Baptist Church in America was founded in Providence in 1638.
• Touro Synagogue, the first synagogue in America, was founded in Newport in 1763. Other sources say the first synagogue was the Mill Street, now South William Street, Synagogue in New York City, built by the Shearith Israel congregation in 1729 (or 1730), having earlier met in rented quarters, making Touro Synagogue the second-oldest in the United States.
• The first armed act of rebellion in America against the British Crown was the boarding and burning of the revenue schooner Gaspee in Narragansett Bay on June 10, 1772.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Dwight, Timothy. Travels Through New England and New York (circa 1800) 4 vol. (1969) Online at: vol 1; vol 2; vol 3; vol 4
• McPhetres, S. A. A political manual for the campaign of 1868, for use in the New England states, containing the population and latest election returns of every town (1868)
• Rhode Island’s Geography and Climate

Secondary sources

• Adams, James Truslow. The Founding of New England (1921)
• Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691–1776 (1923)
• Adams, James Truslow. New England in the Republic, 1776–1850 (1926)
• Andrews, Charles M. The Fathers of New England: A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths (1919). short survey by leading scholar.
• Axtell, James, ed. The American People in Colonial New England (1973), new social history
• Brewer, Daniel Chauncey. Conquest of New England by the Immigrant (1926).
• Coleman, Peter J. The Transformation of Rhode Island, 1790–1860 (1963)
• Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (2001)
• Dennison, George M. The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831–1861 (1976)
• Hall, Donald, ed. Encyclopedia of New England (2005)
• Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1998)
• Lovejoy, David S. Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 1760–1776 (1969)]
• McLaughlin, William. Rhode Island: A Bicentennial History (1976)
• Palfrey, John Gorham. History of New England (5 vol 1859–90)
• Slavery in the North - Slavery in Rhode Island [3]
• Sletcher, Michael. New England. (2004).
• Stephenson, Nathaniel Wright. Nelson W. Aldrich, a Leader in American Politics (1930).
• WPA. Guide to Rhode Island (1939).
• Zimmerman, Joseph F. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action. (1999)

External links

• State of Rhode Island government website
• Rhode Island State Databases - Annotated list of searchable databases produced by Rhode Island state agencies and compiled by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association.
• Energy & Environmental Data for Rhode Island
• USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Rhode Island
• U.S. Census Bureau
• Rhode Island laws
• Scituate Art Festival
• Rhode Island State Facts
• Detailed Historical Article from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Some Old Postcard Views of Rhode Island
• Directory of filming locations in the state
• Interactive Rhode Island Map Server
• Rhode Island newsgroup
• Old Postcards of Rhode Island
• Old Interactive Rhode Island for kids

Template:Rhode Island Template:New England Template:US Northeast

Political divisions of the United States

States Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming Federal district District of Columbia Insular areas American Samoa | Baker Island | Guam | Howland Island | Jarvis Island | Johnston Atoll | Kingman Reef | Midway Atoll | Navassa Island | Northern Mariana Islands | Palmyra Atoll | Puerto Rico | Virgin Islands | Wake Island

Preceded by: North Carolina

List of U.S. states by date of statehood Ratified Constitution on May 29, 1790 (13th)

Succeeded by: Vermont

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Rhode Island  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Rhode Island"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.