and and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America."1
The English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
declared its independence from the English crown on 4 May 1776,
and thus, became a part of the American Revolution. Subsequent
to the American Revolution, Rhode Island accepted the federal
constitution through ratification on 29 May 1790, becoming the
last of the 13 original states to become a part of the United
Consistent with their flight from religious intolerance in
Massachusetts, the Rhode Island settlers from the beginning
welcomed and protected religious minorities. The Quakers sought
and received protection in Rhode Island in 1657, and they were
The settlers in Rhode Island, however, were not as tolerant
of racial differences as they were of religious differences.
Wars between the Rhode Island settlers and the Indians who
already inhabited the lands raged from the 1650s through 1675,
when the power of the Narragansett Indians was broken by the
settlers in the Great Swamp Fight. Native Americans, primarily
1John Paxton, (Ed.)., The Statesman's Year-Book, 1976-1977,
113th ed. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1976), 693.
@ 7 à4 Šthe Narragansett Indians, have been treated in a generally
shoddy manner ever since by a series of colonial and state
governments, all of which have acted patronizingly toward Native
In the last decade of the twentieth century, the State of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, still the official name
of the state, is a highly urbanized and industrialized area.
Almost 90 percent of the current population of the state resides
in urban areas. In the early-1990s, the urbanized areas of Rhode
Island abut urbanized areas in both Massachusetts and
Connecticut, and are a part o...