HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, TOGETHER WITH SELECTED DEMOGRAPHIC DATA PERTAINING TO THE PROVIDENCE-PAWTUCKET-WOONSOCKET, RHODE ISLAND NECMA Introduction Three separate types of information are presented in this
research. First, a brief historical sketch of the State of Rhode
Island is presented. This historical sketch is followed by
summary of census-related data pertaining to the Providence-
Pawtucket-Woonsocket, Rhode Island New England County
Metropolitan Area (NECMA). Lastly, more detailed summaries are
presented of the data related to industry/employment and housing
(real estate, apartments, and so forth) in the Providence-
Pawtucket-Woonsocket, Rhode Island NECMA.
A Brief Historical Sketch of the
Rhode Island, located on the American northeastern seaboard,
is geographically the smallest and demographically the second
most densely populated of the states. The state occupies somewhat
in excess of 12 hundred square miles of land (86.4 percent) and
The first non native settles came to what is now Rhode
Island in 1636 from the neighboring colony of Massachusetts.
These settlers were led by Roger Williams, who founded the City
of Providence. More settlers, led by Anne Hutchinson, arrived
from Massachusetts in 1638. The leaders, Williams and
Hutchinson, along with some of their followers, were exiled from
Massachusetts because of their non acceptance of the prevailing
The settlement at Providence was joined by additional
settlers in 1644 to form the Colony of providence Plantations. A
patent was granted by the English crown for the government of the
Rhode Island settlements in 1647. This patent was followed by a
crown charter in 1663 "recognizing the settlers as forming a body
corporate and politic by the name of the "English Colony of Rhode
Isl...