| I | INTRODUCTION |
Rhode
Island, state in the northeastern United States, in New England,
officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. On May 4, 1776,
Rhode Island became the first of the 13 original colonies to declare its
independence from Great Britain. However, it was the last of the 13 colonies to
ratify the Constitution of the United States, doing so on May 29, 1790. The
smallest state in the Union, it is, after New Jersey, the second most densely
populated and one of the most highly industrialized. Its name is a paradox,
since most of the state is part of the North American mainland. The name
Rhode Island is the official name of the largest island of Narragansett
Bay, an estuary that extends through the eastern part of the state. On most maps
of the United States, the state appears so small that it is difficult to
identify, but its influence is more widely felt than its tiny size would
warrant. Providence is Rhode Island’s capital and its largest city.
Settlement of Rhode Island dates from 1636,
when Roger Williams founded Providence after he had been banished from
Massachusetts because of religious and political conflicts with the Puritans.
This background of dissent made the colony tolerant of other religious
groups.
Rhode Island prospered initially from the sea.
Narragansett Bay, having some of the finest harbors on the Atlantic Seaboard,
sheltered merchant vessels, privateers, slave runners, and even pirates. With
the decline of high profits from maritime commerce, Rhode Island turned in the
1790s to manufacturing. The development of textile manufacturing, along with
that of machinery, metal products, jewelry, and silverware, led to such a
concentration of industry and population that Rhode Island has virtually become
a city-state. However, there remains much unspoiled beauty in the islands and
inlets of Narragansett Bay, in the lagoons and salt marshes of the Atlantic
shore, and in the rolling hills of Block Island, about 16 km (about 10 mi) out
at sea.
Historians disagree over the source of the name
Rhode Island. Some claim that it was first used by the Italian explorer Giovanni
da Verrazzano in 1524, when he compared Block Island to the island of Rhodes in
the Mediterranean. Others maintained that the name is a corruption of Roodt
Eylandt (Red Island), the name applied to Aquidneck Island in 1614 by the
Dutch navigator Adriaen Block because of the red clay on the island’s shore.
Roger Williams, the English Puritan who founded the Rhode Island colony, was the
first to refer to Aquidneck as Rhode Island. The name was incorporated into the
official title of the colony in 1663 and, later, of the state. Rhode Island’s
official nickname is the Ocean State. The state’s small size led to the
emergence of what is now its most common, although unofficial, nickname, Little
Rhody.
| II | PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY |
Rhode Island covers an area of only 4,002 sq
km (1,545 sq mi), including 461 sq km (178 sq mi) of inland water and 23 sq km
(9 sq mi) of coastal water over which it has jurisdiction. Roughly rectangular
in shape, its maximum extent east to west is 64 km (40 mi), while the distance
from its northern border to the southern edge of Block Island is 98 km (61 mi).
The mean elevation is 60 m (200 ft).
| A | Natural Regions |
Rhode Island lies wholly within the New
England province of the Appalachian Region, or Appalachian Highland, and can be
divided into two natural regions. In eastern Rhode Island are the lowlands of
the Narragansett Basin, which is a part of New England’s Seaboard Lowland. The
west forms part of the New England Upland.
The Narragansett Basin occupies the eastern
third of Rhode Island and is a low-lying area of sands and clays. Few points in
the basin rise to more than 60 m (200 ft) above sea level. Narragansett Bay and
its tributary bays cut deeply into the region. To the east of Narragansett Bay
are several low ridges of sedimentary rock that rise above the surrounding
lowland. West of the bay the land is more gently rolling and there are many
small lakes and ponds. To the extent that there is agriculture in Rhode Island,
the Narragansett Basin is the state’s chief farming region.
The New England Upland occupies the western
two-thirds of Rhode Island. It is underlain by granite and other resistant
crystalline rocks and rises sharply from about 60 m (about 200 ft) at the edge
of the Narragansett Basin. Jerimoth Hill, 247 m (812 ft) above sea level and the
state’s highest point, is located in this region near the Connecticut state
line. The surface of the upland is generally rocky. There are some farms and
much woodland.
| B | Rivers and Lakes |
Except for a small area along the border
with Connecticut, all of northern Rhode Island is drained by river systems that
discharge into Narragansett Bay, while rivers in the south drain directly into
the Atlantic Ocean. The largest drainage region that is entirely within the
state is that of the Pawtuxet River system. It extends over one-fourth of the
state’s land area. Many of the rivers are interrupted by small waterfalls and
rapids, which were a valuable source of waterpower for Rhode Island’s earliest
industries, and which powered the much more significant textile industry when it
developed during the 19th century. The Blackstone River is the longest and most
important of the state’s rivers. It crosses from Massachusetts into Rhode Island
near Woonsocket and then flows southeast, joining the Seekonk River at
Pawtucket. Other rivers are the Woonasquatucket and the Moshassuck, which join
shortly before entering the Providence River, and the Pawcatuck, which drains
southwestern Rhode Island and forms part of the Connecticut-Rhode Island
border.
Rhode Island has no large natural lakes,
but there are 383 lakes and ponds that have surface areas of 20 hectares (50
acres) or greater. Extending over 419 hectares (1,036 acres), Worden Pond is the
largest natural freshwater body in the state. Among the impoundments, the
Scituate Reservoir is largest at 1,470 hectares (3,633 acres). Created by
damming the North Branch of the Pawtuxet River, it supplies water to more than
one-half the population of Rhode Island.
| C | Coastline |
Rhode Island fronts the Atlantic Ocean for
64 km (40 mi), but Narragansett Bay and numerous inlets result in the state
having a tidal shoreline of 618 km (384 mi). Extending inland for 42 km (26 mi)
to Providence, Narragansett Bay is the state’s dominant natural feature. Located
in the bay are the islands of Rhode (also known as Aquidneck), Conanicut, and
Prudence, as well as more than 30 smaller islands. The principal arms of the bay
are known as rivers. They include the Seekonk and Providence rivers, which are a
continuation of the Blackstone River, and the Sakonnet River, which is located
between Rhode Island and the mainland. Long, sandy barrier beaches, backed by
shallow lagoons and marshes, border the Atlantic Ocean from the entrance of
Narragansett Bay to the state border with Connecticut. The coastline east of the
bay is characterized by rocky headlands interspersed with sandy beaches.
| D | Climate |
Rhode Island has a humid continental
climate, but the extremes of winter cold and summer heat usually associated with
this type of climate are moderated in Rhode Island by the Atlantic Ocean and
Narragansett Bay. At Warwick, near the center of the state, the January mean
temperature is -2° C (28° F) and the July mean is 27° C (73° F). Along the
northern state line, the January mean temperature is about 1° C (about 2° F)
colder than in Warwick in January. Along the ocean coast, the January mean
temperature is -1° C (30° F). Warm season temperatures are also influenced by
the ocean and bay, so temperatures are usually cooler along the coast than in
the interior. The difference tends to be greatest in spring and early summer.
Winter temperatures in Rhode Island are usually above -7° C (20° F), but
temperatures colder by about 10° C (about 20° F) have been recorded in all
locations of the state. Days with temperatures in the mid-30°s C (lower 90°s F)
are infrequent.
Rhode Island has a relatively wet climate,
with precipitation rather evenly distributed throughout the year. Average annual
precipitation for Providence and vicinity is 1,160 mm (46 in). Amounts are
slightly less in the southeast and slightly greater in the northwest. Annual
snowfall averages 890 mm (35 in), but actual totals in any given year can vary
widely. Because of the moderating effects of the bay and ocean, snowfall is
generally much less in the southern part of the state than in the interior. In
the summer months there are occasional thunderstorms, which tend to be of
limited severity. Hail is infrequent. Hurricanes occur with a frequency of about
every 10 to 15 years. The most severe hurricane of the 20th century occurred in
1938, resulting in 262 deaths and extensive property damage. High winds often
accompany winter storms.
The growing season, or period from the last
killing frost in spring to the first killing frost in fall, is 190 days long in
the low-lying eastern and southwestern sections and from 140 to 180 days long
over the remainder of the state. The first killing frost in fall generally
occurs in the first three weeks of October, and the last spring frost near the
end of April.
| E | Soils |
Most of the soils of Rhode Island are
classified as typic dystrochrepts. These soils, typically found in areas with
cool and rainy climates, are generally acidic, but they can be made productive
by the addition of lime and organic fertilizer. The soils of southeastern Rhode
Island are generally deep and comparatively free of stone and gravel, making
them the best agricultural soils in the state. Soils in the western part of
Rhode Island are sandier and stonier in texture. Steep slopes and large boulders
deposited by glaciers obstruct agriculture in many locations, particularly in
the north and west.
| F | Plant Life |
While 58 percent of Rhode Island is
forested, only a few areas possess stands of timber suitable for use as lumber,
and the chief value of the forests is for recreation. The principal trees are
deciduous, and their leaves take on magnificent fall colors for a short period
in October. White, black, scarlet, and scrub oaks are among the most common
trees, and ash, hickory, elm, sassafras, willow, birch, and American beech are
also found. The state tree is the red maple, which is found in wet areas of the
state. Coniferous trees in the state include white pine, eastern hemlock, pitch
pine, and red cedar.
Common wildflowers include the violet,
which is the state flower, and daisies, bloodroots, trilliums, lilies,
jack-in-the-pulpits, hepaticas, and the trailing arbutus. Asters, goldenrods,
blue gentians, irises, and pimpernels are also found. Flowering dogwoods,
rhododendrons, and mountain laurels color many wooded areas in spring, and the
red berries of the American holly add a touch of color to the winter scene.
| G | Animal Life |
Although white-tailed deer are considered
Rhode Island’s only large wild animal, moose and black bear occasionally cross
the Connecticut and Massachusetts border in the state. Among the smaller animals
native to the state are the raccoon, gray squirrel, woodchuck, and muskrat.
Skunks, opossums, mink, coyotes, and red foxes are also numerous, as are
salamanders, turtles, and snakes.
About 350 different species of birds have
been observed in the state. Many are seasonal residents or transients who visit
during their spring and fall migrations along the Atlantic Flyway. Along the
coastal areas are various species of ducks, gulls, herons, rail, geese,
cormorants, and terns. In some areas, shearwaters, petrels, gannets, and other
seabirds have been observed. Common in the inland areas are the red-tailed hawk,
osprey, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, bobwhite, ruffed grouse, robin,
catbird, and various kinds of warblers. The wild turkey has been successfully
reintroduced to the state and is common in the western half. Block Island is
frequented by large numbers of migratory birds. The Rhode Island Red breed of
chicken was developed at Little Compton in 1854 and is the state bird.
Rhode Island’s marine waters abound in
flounder, butterfish, mackerel, tuna, scup, cod, angler, and whiting, all of
which are caught commercially. Popular game fish include striped bass, tautog
(blackfish), bluefin tuna, and swordfish. Quahogs, which are a large and
strongly flavored type of clam, and scallops, oysters, crabs, and lobsters are
taken along the coast. Freshwater fish include black bass, yellow perch, white
perch, and the brook, rainbow, and brown trout.
| H | Conservation |
Rhode Island’s environmental protection
activities are handled by the department of environmental management, which is
also responsible for parks, natural resource protection, fish and wildlife, and
agricultural programs. Many of the department’s activities are aimed at
protecting the remaining open space in the state. For example, the state has a
forestry program, a shorelands protection program, and a wetlands management
program.
Progress was being made in efforts to
reduce pollution; in the period 1995–2000, the amount of toxic chemicals
discharged into the environment was reduced by 65 percent.
| H1 | Air Quality |
Rhode Island’s air quality is generally
good. Except for four days in which levels of ozone exceeded federal standards,
in 1995 all five counties in Rhode Island met federal goals. The state has
devoted much effort to regulating the emission of toxic air pollutants from
industries.
| H2 | Waste Management |
Rhode Island’s hazardous waste
management laws predate those of the federal government and are generally more
stringent. Most of Rhode Island’s hazardous waste is shipped to other states for
disposal. In 2006 the state had 12 hazardous waste sites on a federal priority
list for cleanup because of their severity or proximity to people. Rhode Island
has a large state-owned solid waste landfill. The state devotes much effort to
such solid waste problems as landfill capacity, resource recovery, and
recycling. Of the 39 municipalities, all have a recycling program, nearly all of
which require mandatory participation.
| H3 | Water Quality |
Water management is important because of
the state’s high concentration of people near its wetlands and shoreline.
Pollutants such as those from sewage treatment plants remain a problem in some
parts of the state. Improvements are being made, the most significant being a
reconstruction of the state’s largest sewage treatment plant, located in
Providence. Heavy rains cause combined sewage and stormwater runoff systems in
metropolitan Providence to overwhelm treatment facilities, resulting in
inadequately treated effluent entering Narragansett Bay. Overall, significant
improvements are being made in the quality of both freshwater and saltwater in
Rhode Island.
Rhode Island is faced with an increasing
number of applications to construct on its remaining wetlands. The state is one
of very few to coordinate its wetlands permit program with the “dredge and fill”
permit program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. This coordination
helps protect the wetlands from development.
| III | ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES |
Shipbuilding and commerce became major
occupations toward the end of the 17th century. From then until the American
Revolution (1775-1783) the colony profited from a prosperous triangular trade in
rum, sugar and molasses, and slaves. Following the decline of the triangular
trade after the American Revolution, whaling and the manufacture of spermaceti
candles from sperm oil, which is from the head and blubber of the sperm whale,
became major economic activities. Rhode Island merchants became active in China
and other parts of East Asia. However, whaling and commerce gradually declined
after 1790, and Rhode Island began to concentrate instead on manufacturing
industries.
Rhode Island was one of the first states to
industrialize. Because Samuel Slater built the first successful American cotton
mill in the state in 1793, Rhode Island is sometimes referred to as the cradle
of the American factory system. Several of the major industries of present-day
Rhode Island, including metalworking, textile manufacturing, and the manufacture
of costume jewelry, date back to before 1800.
Rhode Island had a work force of 577,000 in
2006. Representing 40 percent of the state’s employment, the service industries
constituted the largest job sector. The category includes a wide variety of
work, ranging from office jobs to auto repair. Retail or wholesale trade
employed 20 percent of the job holders; 10 percent work in manufacturing; 13 in
federal, state, or local government, including those people in the military; 18
percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 4 percent in construction; 16
percent in transportation or public utilities; and 1 percent in farming
(including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing. Mining employment is
insignificant. In 2005, 16 percent of Rhode Island’s workers were members of a
labor union. The state has one of the nation’s few unionized work forces that
increased in size during the 1990s.
| A | Agriculture |
In 2005 there were 850 farms in the
state, 42 percent of which earned more than $10,000 annually. Many of the rest
were sidelines for operators who also held jobs off the farm. Farmland occupied
24,281 hectares (60,000 acres), or one-tenth of the state’s land area. Cropland
accounted for 38 percent of the land on farms, with most of the rest devoted to
pasture or wood lots.
Crop sales generated 85 percent of Rhode
Island’s total farm income in 2004. More than three-fifths of all farm income
came from sales of greenhouse and nursery products. Of the few crops raised in
the state, hay, sweet corn, and potatoes are the most valuable. Fruits,
particularly apples, are also grown. The principal livestock products are milk
and eggs. Rhode Island’s small amount of agricultural land ranks the state near
the bottom in comparison to other states in the value of its farm output. Only
Alaska produces less.
| B | Fisheries |
Fishing has been a significant activity
in Rhode Island since the colonial period. In recent years, lobster has been the
most important commercial landing, representing one-quarter of the value of the
state’s total catch. Other important catches are squid, representing one-fifth
of the total catch value, and quahogs, which are a type of clam. Finfishes of
commercial importance include mackerel, goosefish, flounder, silver hake,
butterfish, herring, scups, and skates. Freshwater fishes caught for recreation
include black bass, yellow perch, white perch, and brook, rainbow, and brown
trout.
| C | Manufacturing |
The distribution of manufacturing plants
in the state still reflects the early patterns of industrial development.
Because of Rhode Island’s early industrialization at a time when industry
depended on waterpower, the older industrial areas in Rhode Island lie along the
Blackstone, Pawtucket, and Pawtuxet rivers. Woonsocket, Pawtucket, Central
Falls, Providence, Cranston, and Warwick are the major manufacturing
centers.
The manufacture of jewelry and silverware
is one of Rhode Island’s leading industries. The state is an important center
for the production of both costume and precious jewelry and is also the home of
many of America’s leading silversmiths. Textile manufacturing, for years the
state’s leading economic activity, declined in the second half of the 20th
century but still contributes substantially to the state’s economy. Much of the
fine lace produced in the United States is made in Rhode Island. Many yarns,
woolens, worsteds, synthetic fabrics, knitted goods, and other high-quality
textiles are also produced. Other industries that contribute substantially to
Rhode Island’s economy are those making fabricated metal components,
particularly structural metal used in buildings; industries producing electrical
equipment, especially that used in lighting and wiring; makers of machinery and
parts for other industries; manufacturers of instruments, such as surgical
appliances and navigation equipment; manufacturers of plastic goods; printers
and publishers; industries forging primary metals such as steel and aluminum;
and firms that process food.
| D | Electricity |
All the electricity generated in Rhode
Island comes from steam-driven power plants fueled by oil or natural gas. The
Narragansett Electric Company is responsible for about four-fifths of the
electricity which is produced in the state.
| E | Tourist Industry |
Rhode Island is a popular vacation state,
attracting visitors with its sandy beaches, historic sites, and recreational
opportunities such as boating and fishing. Tourists are drawn to Block Island
and other coastal locations as well as the resort city of Newport, noted for its
opulent mansions, some of which are open to the public. Visitors to the state
spend $1.4 billion annually.
| F | Transportation |
Prior to the advent of the railroads,
Narragansett Bay was Rhode Island’s principal transportation route. However,
water transportation is now relatively less important, surpassed first by rail
and then by highway links.
Only one freight railway operates in
Rhode Island, the regional Providence and Worcester Railroad. Waste and scrap
compose most of the tonnage of goods shipped by rail and originating in Rhode
Island. The railroad also carries stone, chemicals, and fabricated metals. The
state has 164 km (102 mi) of track. The only passenger train service is provided
by the Washington-Boston Amtrak link that passes through the state.
In 2005 Rhode Island had 10,446 km (6,491
mi) of roads, of which 114 km (71 mi) were part of the federal interstate
highway system. The principal route is Interstate 95, which crosses the state
from the southwest to northeast, passing through Providence. Interstate 295
forms a belt around the city.
Theodore Francis Green State Airport,
located south of downtown Providence, is one of six state-operated airports.
Each year in the mid-1990s more than 1 million passengers boarded or departed
aircraft at the airport, making it by far the busiest of the state facilities.
Year-round ferry service is provided
between Galilee and Block Island. Additional routes to the island are active in
summer months. There is also year-round ferry service between Bristol and
Prudence Island in Narragansett Bay.
| G | Trade |
Providence and East Providence constitute
a port at the head of navigation in Narragansett Bay. About three-fourths of the
port’s cargo tonnage is inbound petroleum products. Steel, road salt, and lumber
are also received. Scrap metal is the principal outbound cargo. The second most
important port activity in the bay is the import of automobiles at the former
Davisville naval base.
The heavy concentration of retail outlets
has migrated from downtown Providence to suburban Warwick, where major malls and
other outlets now can be found. Downtown Providence retains its concentration of
business offices and firms engaged in the legal profession. Much of the vacated
retail space has been renovated or reconstructed to serve the needs of nearby
colleges.
| IV | THE PEOPLE OF RHODE ISLAND |
| A | Population Patterns |
According to the 2000 national census,
Rhode Island ranked 43rd among the states, with a total population of 1,048,319.
This represented an increase of 4.5 percent over the 1990 census figure of
1,003,464. The average population density of 394 persons per sq km (1,022 per sq
mi) in 2006 is the second highest in the United States, behind only New Jersey.
Some 91 percent of the people live in urban areas.
According to the 2000 census, whites
constitute 85 percent of the people, blacks 4.5 percent, Asians 2.3 percent,
Native Americans 0.5, Native Hawaiians and other Pacifid Islanders 0.1 percent,
and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race 7.7 percent. Hispanics, who
may be of any race, are 8.7 percent of the people.
| B | Principal Cities |
The principal cities of Rhode Island are
Providence, Pawtucket, Warwick, Cranston, and Woonsocket, all of which are part
of a larger continuous urban area that is defined by the Bureau of the Census as
the Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket metropolitan area. This metropolitan area had a
total population of 1,612,989 in 2006. Providence, the state capital, is the
largest city in Rhode Island and had a total population of 175,255 in 2006. A
great mercantile city in the past, Providence is now primarily an industrial and
educational center. Warwick, with a population of 85,925, has some textile mills
and electronics plants but is mainly a residential suburb of Providence and a
retail trade center. Cranston, with a population of 81,479, is a center for
textile printing, machinery, machine tools, and fire extinguishers. Pawtucket,
with 72,998 residents, is famous as the site of the first successful American
cotton mill, built by Samuel Slater, and is still primarily a textile center and
a world leader in toy production. Woonsocket, with a population of 43,940, is
primarily a textile center. Newport, which is outside the Providence-Pawtucket
metropolitan area, had a population of 24,409 and is noted as a summer resort
and yachting center.
| C | Religion |
Early in its history, Rhode Island was a
haven for persons who held religious beliefs that were unpopular elsewhere in
the colonies. Among the early settlers were Baptists, Quakers, Anglicans,
Congregationalists, and Jews. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, many other
denominations came to be represented among the people of Rhode Island. Among
them were the Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Universalist churches.
Immigration from Europe and also French Canada in the 19th century resulted in
the growth of the Roman Catholic population. By 1910 a majority of the
population was Catholic.
The Roman Catholic church still has more
members than any other church in Rhode Island, with more than three-fifths of
all churchgoers. The next largest religious groups in the state are the
Protestant Baptists and Episcopalians and Jewish adherents.
| V | EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS |
| A | Education |
The first public school in present-day
Rhode Island was established at Newport in 1640. Although it was short-lived, a
number of private schools were subsequently opened. Although state laws
providing for a statewide public school system were passed in 1800 and repealed
in 1803, a public school system was created and maintained in Providence. State
legislation enacted in 1828 effectively arranged for statewide public education,
with state aid for local schools. In the 1840s the noted educator Henry Barnard
conducted a survey of Rhode Island’s public schools and succeeded in obtaining
major education reforms. The so-called Barnard school law, which was passed by
the state legislature in 1845, instituted a progressive, centralized state
school system with statewide standards for instruction.
School attendance is compulsory in Rhode
Island for all children from the age of 6 to 16. Parochial and other private
schools enroll 16 percent of the state’s children.
In the 2002–2003 school year Rhode Island
spent $10,731 on each student’s education, compared to a national average of
$9,299. There were 13.4 students for every teacher, giving the state one of the
smallest average class sizes in the nation, where the average was 15.9 students
per teacher. Of those older than 25 years of age in 2006, 82.4 percent had a
high school diploma; the country as a whole averaged 84.1 percent.
| A1 | Higher Education |
The oldest institution of higher
education in Rhode Island is Brown University, in Providence. Chartered in 1764
as Rhode Island College, it was the first college to be founded in Rhode Island
and the seventh to be established in the United States. Originally located in
Warren, it was moved to Providence in 1770 and received its present name in
1804. The Rhode Island School of Design, which is also located in Providence,
includes divisions providing instruction in fine arts, architecture, and
textiles. In Newport is the U.S. Naval War College, which provides specialized
postgraduate instruction for commissioned officers in the armed forces of the
United States and its allies.
The state-supported University of Rhode
Island was founded in 1892 as Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts. Originally established as a land-grant college, the university was also
designated as a sea-grant college in 1971. In addition to its main campus in
Kingston, the university maintains campuses in Providence and other communities
in the state. Rhode Island College, in Providence, is also a state supported
institution, as is the Community College of Rhode Island, which has campuses in
Providence, Warwick, and Lincoln. Other noted institutions include Johnson &
Wales University and Providence College, both in Providence; Roger Williams
College, in Bristol; and Salve Regina University, in Newport. In 2004–2005 the
state had 3 public and 11 private institutions of higher learning.
| B | Libraries |
Each of Rhode Island’s 39 municipalities
has at least one public library, for a total of 48 tax-supported systems, and
all the institutions of higher learning have at least one library each. There
are also about 30 specialized libraries, some open to the public, in the state.
Libraries circulate an average of 6.8 books for every resident each year. The
Office of Library and Information Services coordinates a wide variety of
services and library development. The largest public library in the state is the
Providence Public Library, which includes notable special collections on the
American Civil War (1861-1865) and slavery, and on printing, whaling, juvenile
literature, and Irish culture. The oldest library in the state is the Redwood
Library and Athenaeum in Newport, which was founded in 1747. Brown University
libraries include the John Hay Library. This library’s collections include the
Annmary Brown Memorial Collection, one of the country’s largest and most
important accumulation of books printed through the year 1500; the Broadsides
Collection, featuring examples of single-sheet imprints from American political
and social history, literature, and music; the Harris Collection of American
Poetry and Plays; noted manuscript collections, including those of writers H. P.
Lovecraft, Henry David Thoreau, and Émile Zola; and special collections on
Italian poet Dante Alighieri and 18th century English Literature.
Other major college libraries are located at the University of Rhode Island at
Kingston and at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Rhode Island Historical
Society Library, which is located in Providence, has extensive materials on the
state’s history.
| C | Museums |
Among the fine art museums in Rhode Island
are those maintained by the Rhode Island School of Design, at Providence, and
the Newport Art Museum. There are historical museums in the state, including the
museums maintained by the Rhode Island Historical Society, at Providence, and by
the Newport Historical Society. Rhode Island is also rich in historic sites and
structures. The Slater Mill Historic Site, commonly known as Old Slater Mill, in
Pawtucket, is a museum of textile history and arts. An outstanding group of
buildings, which date from colonial times and later periods, is found in
Newport, where the Preservation Society of Newport County aids in restoring and
preserving important structures. One of these, a palatial mansion called The
Breakers, was built in 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Other museums in Rhode Island include Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum of
Anthropology, in Bristol, which contains outstanding anthropological and
archaeological collections.
| D | Communications |
The first newspaper published in Rhode
Island was the Rhode Island Gazette, established in 1732 in Newport by
James Franklin, a brother of Benjamin Franklin. James Franklin, Jr., founded the
famous Newport Mercury in 1758. The oldest daily newspaper in the state
is the Providence Journal, which was established in 1829. In 2002
there were 7 daily newspapers in the state. The leading dailies were the
Providence Journal, the Pawtucket Times, and the Woonsocket
Call.
In 2002 Rhode Island had 9 AM and 20 FM
radio stations and 3 television stations. The state’s first radio station, WEAN,
in Providence, began broadcasting in 1922, and its first television station,
WJAR-TV, also in Providence, began operation in 1949.
| E | Music and Theater |
A variety of musical and theatrical
organizations are active in Rhode Island. Among them are the Festival Ballet of
Rhode Island, the State Ballet of Rhode Island, and the Chorus of Westerly. The
Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra performs throughout the state, and the Rhode
Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra presents annual productions. There are many
other active musical groups in the state. The Trinity Repertory Company is the
principal theater organization, while The Players is one of numerous amateur
theater groups.
| VI | RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST |
An extensive shoreline and mild summer
climate contribute to Rhode Island’s renown as a vacation state. Resorts along
the coast and offshore islands are major centers for people interested in
boating, fishing, swimming, and other water sports. Notable resorts in the state
include Block Island, which lies 16 km (10 mi) offshore, and Newport, one of the
nations most popular resorts.
Rhode Island is also noted for its numerous
places of historic interest, some of which are designated as state historic
sites. Among the best-known tourist attractions of historic interest is Touro
Synagogue National Historic Site, in Newport. It preserves the oldest synagogue
in the United States. Rhode Island’s only national park is Roger Williams
National Memorial, in Providence, commemorating the first government to declare
religious freedom for all.
| A | State Parks |
There are about 25 state parks, beaches,
and management areas in Rhode Island. The largest, Beach Pond State Park, is in
the hilly western part of the state and has facilities for swimming, boating,
camping, and nature study. Also in the west is Dawley State Park, which has
picnicking, hiking, and riding facilities. Diamond Hill State Park, in the
northeast, has picnic facilities and wooded terrain. Located in the south is
Fishermen’s Memorial State Park, a camping facility along Point Judith Pond, an
inlet of the Atlantic Ocean.
Burlingame State Park lies on Watchaug
Pond in southwestern Rhode Island. The park includes a bird sanctuary, picnic
sites and campsites, hiking trails, and facilities for boating, swimming, and
fishing.
| B | State Historic Sites |
World War I Memorial State Historic Site,
located in Providence, includes a granite shaft 35 m (115 ft) tall that supports
a heroic figure representing peace. Noted for its excellent acoustics, Rhode
Island’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence is the state’s World War II
memorial. General Stanton State Historic Site, in Charlestown, is a granite
shaft erected in honor of Joseph Stanton, Jr., a prominent soldier in the French
and Indian wars and one of the first two U.S. senators from Rhode Island. Also
in Charlestown is Indian Burial Ground State Historic Site, an 8-hectare
(20-acre) plot that contains the graves of Narragansett Native Americans. Fort
Ninigret State Historic Site in Charlestown holds the original outline of a fort
supposedly built by Dutch traders before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in
1620. On the boundary between the towns of Exeter and North Kingstown is Queen’s
Fort State Historic Site, which includes the ruins of an ancient Native American
fort abandoned in 1676. Other state historic sites are Great Swamp Fight State
Historic Site in South Kingstown, Jireh Bull Garrison State Historic Site in
South Kingstown, and Bell Schoolhouse State Historic Site in Exeter.
| C | Other Places to Visit |
Among the many other places to visit in
Rhode Island is the State House in Providence. A beautiful domed building of
white marble, it stands on a hill overlooking the city. The First Baptist Church
in Providence is the oldest Baptist church in the United States. The city’s
Roger Williams Park includes lakes, gardens, rolling wooded hills, and
recreation areas. Also within the park are a planetarium, extensive zoo, natural
history museum, and aviary. The main United States post office in Providence was
the first fully automated post office in the United States. With its 66 carved
figures and baroque-style organ, the Crescent Park Carousel, located in East
Providence, is one of the finest examples of carousels left in North America.
The Green Animals topiary gardens were started by Thomas Brayton in the late
1800s. There are 80 sculptured trees and shrubs, formal flower beds, fruit and
vegetable gardens at the Portsmouth gardens.
At Block Island the bluffs rise abruptly
to a height of about 60 m (200 ft) above the sea and stretch for nearly 5 km (3
mi) along the southern shore, offering spectacular scenery. The lighthouse has
the most powerful beacon on the United States East Coast.
In Newport, long a fashionable summer
resort, some of the city’s palatial summer mansions and estates are open to the
public. Many of the estates can be seen from Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive.
The Breakers, considered the most beautiful summer residence in Newport, was
built in 1895 in Italian renaissance style. A 70-room mansion, it is adorned
with mosaics and carved stonework, and contains the original furnishings. Among
the numerous historic buildings to visit in Newport is the Old Colony House, or
Old State House, which was erected in 1739 and housed the general assembly of
Rhode Island from 1790 to 1900. The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House dates from 1675
and is the oldest existing and restored house in Newport.
Also in the city is the Old Stone Tower, a
structure once believed to have been built by the Norse. However, excavations
carried out on the site in 1948 and 1949 showed that the structure is probably
the ruin of a windmill dating from about 1670. Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket, now
preserved as a museum, was built in 1793. Visitors there can view demonstrations
of early methods of producing textiles. In North Kingstown is the Gilbert Stuart
Memorial, built in 1751, which preserves the birthplace of the famous American
portrait painter. On the grounds is an 18th-century snuff mill, which is still
in operation. The National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame and Tennis Museum, in
Newport, houses exhibits relating to the history of lawn tennis in the United
States.
| D | Annual Events |
Sports contests account for many of Rhode
Island’s notable annual events. The Winter Sports Carnival is held at Providence
annually during the first week in February. The Newport-Bermuda Yacht Race is
held biennially in June. The Invitation Block Island Sound Race of the Watch
Hill Yacht Club takes place at Watch Hill each July. Sports events in August
include the Atlantic Tuna Tournament, at Block Island, and the Annual
International Invitation Tennis Tournament, in Newport. The Rhode Island Open
Salt-Water Fishing Derby takes place from August 14 to November 1.
Other annual events in Rhode Island
include the statewide observance of Rhode Island Heritage Month in May, the
Providence Festival Chorus Concert in the month of June, and the popular Rhode
Island Red Chicken Barbecue at Little Compton in July. A folk festival is held
in Newport every August. The Heritage Day Pow Wow in Warwick in November
features Native American singing, dancing, and arts and crafts. The Antique Auto
Tour, from Woonsocket to Westerly, takes place each October.
| VII | GOVERNMENT |
Rhode Island’s present state constitution
went into effect in 1843. Before that time the state was governed under the
royal charter issued in 1663 by King Charles II of England. The state
constitution now contains more than 50 amendments. Proposed amendments must
initially be approved by a majority of the elected membership of both houses. To
be adopted, they must then win the approval of a majority of the voters in a
general election. Amendments may also be proposed by a constitutional
convention.
| A | Executive |
The chief executive of Rhode Island is
the governor, who is elected for a four-year term. Other elected executive
officials are the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and
treasurer, all of whom serve four-year terms. The governor may veto legislation,
but the General Assembly may override the veto by a three-fifths vote of those
present at the voting. The governor also appoints some of the state’s major
administrative officials, generally subject to the approval of the Senate.
| B | Legislative |
The Rhode Island legislature, called the
General Assembly, consists of a 38-member Senate and a 75-member House of
Representatives. All legislators are elected for two-year terms. Regular
sessions of the General Assembly, which convenes annually on the first Tuesday
in January, generally conclude sometime between May and early July. Special
sessions of unlimited duration may be called by the governor.
| C | Judicial |
The highest court in Rhode Island, the
supreme court, is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices. It
generally meets in Providence. The appointment of a supreme court judge requires
that a judicial nominating committee submit the names of five candidates to the
governor. The governor selects one of the five and submits the name to the
General Assembly, wherein a majority vote of both houses is required for
confirmation and appointment for life. The major trial court in the state
judiciary is the superior court. It consists of justices appointed for life by
the governor following the procedure used in selecting supreme court justices.
Other courts include a family court, district courts, courts of probate, whose
functions are often performed by the town councils, and municipal police
courts.
| D | Local Government |
There are no independent county
governments in Rhode Island. The state is divided into five counties, but the
counties serve merely as state judicial districts. The state’s chief units of
local government are 31 towns and 8 cities. The towns and cities are contiguous,
so that they include all the land of the state within their boundaries. Most
towns still have town meetings, an institution dating from colonial times. A
town financial meeting is held annually. Most town officials are elected on the
state’s regular election day and serve two-year terms. A number of towns have
the council-manager form of government. Most of Rhode Island’s cities have the
mayor and council form of government.
| E | National Representation |
Rhode Island elects two U.S. senators and
two U.S. representatives. It has four electoral votes in presidential
elections.
| VIII | HISTORY |
| A | Native Americans |
Five Algonquian-speaking groups of
Native Americans inhabited what is now Rhode Island when the first white
explorers arrived in the 16th century and early 17th century. The Narragansett
occupied most of the region and were the largest and most powerful group,
numbering about 5,000. The Wampanoag lived in the area east of Narragansett Bay.
The Nipmuc lived in northern Rhode Island and adjacent areas of Massachusetts
and Connecticut. The Niantic inhabited southwestern Rhode Island and coastal
areas of Connecticut. The Pequot held land along Rhode Island’s western border
but lived mostly in what is now Connecticut.
Archaeological sites indicate the native
inhabitants lived largely by hunting deer, catching fish and shellfish, and
growing corn, beans, and squash. They migrated between inland and coastal areas
during the year to take advantage of seasonal resources. The principal social
unit was the village, led by a village chief called a sachem. Some
sachems apparently held power over larger confederacies made up of several
villages, and over some of the smaller, weaker native groups.
| B | Exploration and Settlement |
The first European known to have
explored the Rhode Island area was the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano.
He sailed into Narragansett Bay in 1524, exploring its coasts and islands and
finding large Narragansett and Wampanoag settlements. The Dutch navigator
Adriaen Block explored Block Island and the coastal areas of the mainland in
1614, and Dutch fur traders were active in the region. In the next few years,
epidemics decimated the Native American people throughout New England; the
Wampanoag suffered heavy losses.
In 1635 William Blackstone, an Anglican
clergyman, left Boston to seek solitude and settled at the site of Valley Falls,
in an area that was then part of the Massachusetts Bay colony. A year later, a
Puritan minister, Roger Williams, became the first European to establish an
independent, permanent settlement in the Rhode Island region.
Williams had lived in the Massachusetts
Bay and Plymouth colonies, but came into conflict with the Puritan authorities
there. An outspoken advocate of religious freedom, he challenged some of the
civil and religious restrictions in the colonies. In January 1636 he was forced
to flee Massachusetts to avoid deportation to England. He found refuge among the
Wampanoag, whose chief, Massasoit, was his friend. Massasoit gave him a tract of
land east of the Seekonk River, and Williams, together with friends from Salem,
settled at the site of the present-day Rumford, in East Providence. However, the
authorities of the Plymouth Colony had jurisdiction over the area and forced the
dissenters to move across the river to land controlled by the Narragansett. The
Narragansett sachems, Canonicus and Miantonomi, gave Williams a large grant of
land, and he established Providence, Rhode Island’s first permanent white
settlement, in 1636.
Williams was highly respected by the
Native Americans. Unlike many colonists, he viewed them as fellow human beings,
not as savages. He learned their language and dealt fairly and honestly with
them, insisting that settlers must compensate the native people rather than
seize their lands. In turn, the native groups not only accepted the colonists
but encouraged settlement. The Wampanoag and Narragansett were traditional
rivals, and each tribe viewed the settlers as potential allies against the
other. The settlers also created a buffer against the more aggressive colonies
in Massachusetts. When war broke out in 1637 between the Pequot and colonists in
Connecticut, the Narragansett aided the settlers, and the Pequot were nearly
annihilated. In 1638 Williams and 12 other settlers formed the Proprietors’
Company for Providence Plantations to share the land deeded by the
Narragansett.
Also in 1638, a separate group of
colonists, led by John Clarke, William Coddington, and Anne Hutchinson, arrived
from Massachusetts. Like Williams, the group had been banished from
Massachusetts because of political and religious disputes with the Puritan
establishment. Hutchinson preached a doctrine of salvation that was considered
an attack on the moral and legal codes of the Massachusetts colony and led to
her exile. Williams helped the group obtain land from the Narragansett at the
northern end of Aquidneck Island, where they founded Pocasset, later renamed
Portsmouth. Differences arose between factions headed by Hutchinson and
Coddington, and in 1639 Coddington’s supporters moved to the southern part of
Aquidneck Island, where they established the settlement of Newport. The next
year the two island communities united in a federation and chose Coddington as
governor. Aquidneck was renamed Rhode Island in 1644.
A fourth independent settlement,
Shawomet, was founded in 1642 by Samuel Gorton, a man of radical religious
views. Having quarreled with authorities at Boston and Plymouth, he came to the
Rhode Island settlements, but also fell into disputes in Portsmouth, Newport,
Providence, and the settlement adjoining Providence called Pawtuxet. Gorton and
a group of supporters then bought a tract of land south of Providence, the
Shawomet Purchase, from Narragansett chiefs. But Pawtuxet settlers and local
Narragansett disputed the sale and appealed to Massachusetts authorities. In
1643 Massachusetts sent troops to seize Gorton and his followers, who were tried
for blasphemy and other offenses. Narrowly escaping a death sentence, Gorton and
several others were imprisoned for several months, then banished from
Massachusetts. Gorton went to England to appeal for protection for his
settlement, and obtained a guarantee of protection from a parliamentary
commission headed by the earl of Warwick. The grateful Gorton returned in 1648
to the settlement, which he renamed Warwick.
| C | The Settlements Unite |
Massachusetts and Plymouth continued to
threaten the Rhode Island settlements, partly because they served as a refuge
for religious dissenters from those Puritan colonies. To prevent interference in
the settlements’ affairs, in 1644 Williams obtained a charter from Parliament
that provided a legal basis for the settlements’ existence. Under the terms of
the charter, Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth were incorporated as Providence
Plantations. Although Warwick was not included in the charter, freeholders from
that settlement joined in the first recorded meeting of the colony’s general
assembly, at Portsmouth in May 1647.
In 1651 the affairs of the infant colony
were disrupted when Coddington obtained a charter establishing the separate
colony of Aquidneck, which included Aquidneck and Conanicut islands. Under the
terms of the charter, the conservative and theocratic Coddington was to serve as
governor of Aquidneck for life. Williams and John Clarke went immediately to
England and succeeded in getting Coddington’s charter revoked in 1652. In 1654
the colony was reunited.
| D | Charter of 1663 |
In 1660 the British monarchy was
restored after a long civil war, and Charles II took the throne. With a new
regime in power, Rhode Islanders were eager to have their independence
reaffirmed and petitioned the king for a royal charter. Issued in 1663 through
Clarke, the colony’s agent in England, the charter incorporated the mainland and
island of Rhode Island as Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. A liberal
document, the charter permitted the colonists a large measure of
self-government; the governor and many other officials were to be elected by the
colonists, not appointed by the king. The charter also guaranteed “full liberty
in religious concernments” in the colony, continuing the policy of religious
liberty that had prevailed from the outset in the Rhode Island settlements.
Throughout the colonial period, members of religious sects, such as Jews and
Quakers, who were persecuted in other colonies enjoyed complete freedom of
worship in Rhode Island.
The charter of 1663 remained in effect
almost continuously until 1843. It was suspended only from 1686 to 1689, when
Rhode Island was absorbed into the short-lived Dominion of New England, a colony
that incorporated most of New England under the control of royal governor Edmund
Andros.
| E | King Philip’s War |
Rhode Islanders’ peaceful relationship
with the Native American inhabitants was shattered in 1675, when land disputes
between the Wampanoag and the Massachusetts colonies led to King Philip’s War.
The uprising was led by the Wampanoag chief Metacomet, known as King Philip, and
joined by members of some other tribes.
The colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth,
and Connecticut retaliated against not only those involved but also the neutral
Narragansett, whose lands they wanted to take over. When the Narragansett gave
refuge to some fleeing Wampanoag, colonists launched a surprise attack on the
tribe’s stronghold in the Great Swamp, near West Kingston, Rhode Island. The
fortified village was burned, and about 600 Narragansett were killed, including
many women and children. The remaining Narragansett then joined Philip’s forces,
devastating Rhode Island’s mainland settlements and other New England towns.
While the Rhode Island colony did not officially join the war against the
natives, it allowed the other colonies free rein in the territory.
When the war ended in 1676 with Philip’s
defeat and death, many Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Nipmuc were executed or sold
into slavery, and their lands were taken over by the colonies. Surviving
Narragansett merged with the Niantic, who had remained neutral. The war ruined
the native tribes of southern New England and ended resistance to further
settlements in the area.
| F | Agricultural and Commercial Growth |
When the royal charter was issued in
1663, the white population of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was
probably no more than 1,000. By 1700 that had increased to about 7,000, and five
new towns had been incorporated: Westerly; New Shoreham, on Block Island; Kings
Towne; East Greenwich; and Jamestown, on Conanicut Island. During the 18th
century the colony’s population increased substantially, rising to nearly 60,000
by the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775.
Initially, Rhode Islanders farmed and
fished, mostly to meet their own needs. By the early 18th century, Rhode Island
farmers and planters were producing surplus livestock and crops, sometimes with
the use of slave labor. Leading agricultural produce included corn, wool,
cheese, and horses, notably the famous crossbreed known as the Narragansett
pacer. Agricultural produce, lumber, and fish were shipped mainly to the West
Indies, with smaller amounts going to other colonies, England, and southern
Europe.
In exchange for their goods, Rhode
Island traders received commodities and money they used to purchase manufactured
products from England. But mostly they received molasses from the West Indies.
This brought them into the so-called triangular trade that developed in the
early 18th century between the New England colonies, Africa, and the West
Indies. The molasses was made into rum at Newport and other sites. Merchants
transported rum to Africa, where it was exchanged for black slaves. The next
stop was generally the West Indies, where slaves were in great demand on vast
sugar plantations. The slaves were exchanged for molasses, which was brought
back to Rhode Island to be made into more rum.
This trade flourished during most of the
18th century, providing much of the wealth that made Newport a leading social
and cultural center in the colonies. Newport also served as a major slave
trading center until 1774. That year Rhode Island, the leading slave trader
among the British colonies, imposed a partial ban on the importation of slaves.
A gradual emancipation act was adopted in 1784, which declared that children
born to slave mothers after that date were considered free. By 1808, when
Congress banned the foreign slave trade, most blacks in the state had achieved
free status.
Another important economic activity in
colonial Rhode Island was privateering, the practice of commissioning private
vessels to attack enemy ships during wartime. Rhode Island’s colonial assembly
encouraged privateering against the French during several wars between France
and Britain for control of North America, which lasted until 1763. The
privateers made high profits from captured ships and spent much of their money
in Rhode Island ports.
| G | American Revolution |
Beginning in the 1760s, Britain passed a
series of laws restricting the sugar and molasses trade. Rhode Islanders, who
now depended largely on maritime trade for their prosperity, responded by
smuggling such goods past British enforcement ships. In 1772 a British customs
ship, the Gaspée, ran aground while chasing a suspected smuggler ship up
Narragansett Bay. A group of colonists, led by prominent merchant John Brown and
Captain Abraham Whipple, burned the stranded British ship, in one of the most
significant violent acts of resistance against Britain before the outbreak of
the American Revolution in 1775.
Within days after the battles at
Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the first of the Revolutionary War, Rhode
Island’s General Assembly voted to raise an army to fight the British. On May 4,
1776, the assembly became the first colonial body to renounce its allegiance to
King George III. On July 18 it ratified the Declaration of Independence and
officially changed the colony’s name to the State of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations. Though few land battles occurred in Rhode Island during the war,
British troops seized Aquidneck Island and occupied Newport from December 1776
to October 1779. In 1778 the British held off an attack by a combined force of
American and French troops. As the American force retreated, the British
counterattacked and were defeated in what is known as the Battle of Rhode
Island. This campaign was the largest military-naval engagement fought in New
England during the war.
After the British withdrew from Newport
in 1779, the city hosted a large French army under the Comte de Rochambeau in
1780 and 1781. Rochambeau’s forces marched to Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781,
helping General George Washington defeat the British in the last major action of
the war. The Rhode Islander most important to the Revolutionary War military
effort was Nathanael Greene, Washington’s second in command and the leader of
American forces in the successful southern campaign that led up to the victory
at Yorktown.
| H | Statehood |
After the war there was considerable
opposition in Rhode Island to the formation of a strong federal union of the
states. Farmers wanted to retain local autonomy and preserve states’ rights, and
they favored cheap paper currency to pay their debts. They feared a strong
federal government would be controlled by Federalists, who would insist on debts
being paid in hard money—that is, currency backed by gold reserves. In addition,
the state’s large and influential Quaker community opposed compromises on
slavery contained in the Constitution of the United States when it was drafted.
Rhode Island did not send delegates to the constitutional convention in 1787,
and there was widespread opposition in the state to ratifying the Constitution.
Rhode Island was the last of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution
and did so with the narrowest margin, a vote of 34 to 32 on May 29, 1790.
| I | Industrial Development |
Beginning in the late 18th century, an
industrial revolution occurred in Rhode Island. In 1790 Samuel Slater, a recent
immigrant from Britain, reproduced machinery in Pawtucket for spinning cotton.
With the financial backing of Moses Brown, a Providence businessman, Slater set
up the first cotton-spinning plant in the United States. This began what was to
become Rhode Island’s most important industry, textiles.
In the decades that followed, the
textile industry grew rapidly, spurred by new inventions and by national
political and economic developments. After 1799 wars in Europe made it difficult
for Americans to obtain manufactured goods from abroad, increasing demand for
goods manufactured in the United States. Demand also grew with restrictions on
foreign trade under the Embargo Act of 1807 and during the War of 1812
(1812-1815). Merchants were encouraged to transfer their capital from commerce
to industry. Several decades later the great expansion of railroad
transportation in the eastern United States broadened Rhode Island’s domestic
market and gave the state’s manufacturers access to distant coalfields, ending
their almost total reliance on waterpower.
Encouraged by these developments, the
number of cotton mills in the state increased from about 20 in 1809 to about 135
mills in 1860. Rhode Island’s population more than doubled, from about 75,000 to
175,000, and shifted from rural areas to small villages. Less than one-fourth of
Rhode Islanders lived in urban areas in 1809; by 1860, two-thirds were urban
dwellers. Drawn by jobs in the cotton mills and other industries, Rhode Island
farmers and thousands of foreign immigrants, particularly British and Irish,
flocked to the industrial centers.
The growth of the cotton-spinning and
weaving industry was the most important economic development in Rhode Island
before the Civil War (1861-1865). Other notable industries included cotton
printing and dyeing and the manufacture of woolens, jewelry, silverware, and
textile machinery.
| J | Dorr’s Rebellion and Constitutional Reform |
Even after the American Revolution,
Rhode Islanders chose to retain their cherished royal charter of 1663 as the new
state’s basic law. Under the charter regime, the General Assembly decreed that
only property-holding males were eligible to vote in Rhode Island. This meant
that most industrial workers could not vote. As Providence and other industrial
centers grew, a high proportion of Rhode Islanders were disenfranchised—that is,
had no vote—and rural towns became greatly overrepresented in the legislature in
proportion to their population.
In 1841 a prominent Providence lawyer,
Thomas Wilson Dorr, joined a movement called the People’s Party that was working
for universal manhood suffrage, legislative reapportionment, and other reforms.
Dorr was the principal author of a new constitution that the party drew up at a
popularly convened constitutional convention. This so-called People’s
Constitution was overwhelmingly ratified by a plebiscite that the People’s Party
organized. About the same time, however, the state legislature also called for a
constitutional convention, at which a more conservative document, the so-called
Freemen’s Constitution, was drawn up. The legally framed Freemen’s Constitution
was narrowly defeated by the state’s enfranchised voters. In April 1842 both the
People’s Party and the charter government held elections for state officials. In
May Dorr, who was elected governor in the People’s Party vote, was inaugurated
at Providence, and Samuel Ward King, the winner of the regular election, was
sworn in the next day at Newport, giving Rhode Island two rival state
governments. When the charter government began to arrest Dorr’s supporters, the
reformers resorted to armed force. Dorrites assaulted the Providence arsenal
later that month, but couldn’t get their antiquated artillery to fire. Martial
law was declared in the state, and many of Dorr’s supporters were arrested,
while Dorr fled the state.
Although Dorr’s Rebellion was
suppressed, it was obvious that some of the demands of his followers must be
met. The state legislature called another constitutional convention in late 1842
and drafted a new constitution, which went into effect in May 1843. That
document liberalized voting requirements and provided for some legislative
reapportionment. But urban areas remained underrepresented, and the new
constitution contained the most anti-immigrant voting requirement in the
country, discriminating against the growing population of Irish-Catholic and
other foreign-born citizens. Native-born citizens who did not own property were
allowed to vote in federal and statewide elections simply by paying a one-dollar
“registry tax,” but a foreign-born citizen could only vote if he owned $134
worth of real property. Citizens who did not own property or pay taxes, whether
they were foreign- or native-born, could not vote in local elections.
| K | American Civil War |
Rhode Island, although closely linked
economically to the cotton growers of the South, voted for Abraham Lincoln in
1860 in an effort to maintain the Union. More than 23,000 Rhode Islanders fought
for the Union during the Civil War (1861-1865). They included Ambrose E.
Burnside, commander of the state militia, who served briefly as commander of the
Army of the Potomac.
| L | Late 19th Century Economic Developments |
In the decades after the Civil War,
Rhode Island’s economy continued expanding. Raw cotton was scarce during the
war, which encouraged investment in wool manufacturing, which became the most
important economic development during the later part of the 19th century. Cotton
textile production increased again after the war, but by 1900 wool industries
were equally important to the state. Related industries also expanded, such as
cloth dyeing and printing and the manufacture of textile machinery. The jewelry
and silverware industries also grew significantly, and by 1880 Rhode Island had
more jewelry and silverware workers than any other state. In addition, the
production of rubber goods became economically significant.
| M | Population Changes and State Politics |
Rhode Island’s population rose to
428,556 by 1900, largely from the flow of French-Canadians and other diverse
immigrant groups into the state. The French-Canadians, who were often recruited
by agents for the textile mills, settled in communities near the mills. Large
waves of Italians, Portuguese, Swedes, and Eastern Europeans, especially Poles
and Jews, also migrated to the state, providing a fresh source of labor for the
textile mills. Between 1900 and 1910 the state’s population increased by a
record 114,054 inhabitants.
By 1900 almost 70 percent of the
state’s population was foreign-born or had foreign-born parents. However,
business leaders descended from the Yankee pioneers continued to control Rhode
Island’s politics through the Republican Party. To ensure Yankee Republicans
would continue to rule, the Republican-controlled legislature in 1901 passed the
so-called Brayton Law, named after the boss of the Republican state political
machine. The Brayton Law insured that even if a Democrat became governor, the
state Senate would be able to reject his appointees and substitute its own. The
Republicans were certain to maintain control of the Senate because strongly
Republican rural areas remained overrepresented even after the legislature was
reapportioned in 1909. With the help of the Brayton Law and with the support of
the large French-American population, the Republicans continued to dominate the
state government, even during Democratic administrations, until the 1930s.
Meanwhile, the Irish, the state’s largest ethnic group, gained firm control of
the Democratic Party.
| N | World War I to World War II |
After World War I (1914-1918), low
wages and lower energy and transportation costs in the South prompted many
textile plants to relocate there, and Rhode Island’s cotton industry began to
decline. In 1922 wages were drastically reduced, causing a long and bitter
strike in some of Rhode Island’s largest mills and creating stronger textile
unions. However, the decline in textile manufacturing was relatively slow in the
1920s, which were largely a prosperous decade.
Economic conditions worsened in the
1930s, as the nation entered the period of hard times known as the Great
Depression. Rhode Islanders supported the Democratic presidential candidate,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932, as they had narrowly supported the unsuccessful
Democratic candidate, Alfred E. Smith, in 1928. They also elected a Democratic
governor, Theodore Francis Green, and in 1935 they gave Democrats control of
both houses of the state legislature for the first time since 1854. When the
Democratic-controlled General Assembly convened in 1935, it repealed the Brayton
Law, ousted the existing Supreme Court justices, and reorganized and streamlined
the executive branch of the state government in a coup called the Bloodless
Revolution.
The state’s economy recovered slowly
during the 1930s. By 1939, employment in nontextile industries returned to the
level of 1929, but employment in the textile industry was still about 15 percent
below its 1929 level. World War II (1939-1945) gave a temporary lift to the
state’s economy. During the war, nontextile employment surpassed textile
employment, partly because of a substantial increase in shipbuilding in the
state. But the state’s economy still depended mainly on the declining textile
industry, and Rhode Island’s unemployment rate remained consistently higher than
the national average after the war.
| O | Recent Developments |
From the 1950s through the 1970s, Rhode
Island’s textile industry continued to decline. Textile employees decreased from
more than 60,000 in 1950 to fewer than 15,000 in the late 1970s. Manufacturing
in general declined in importance, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, except for
the jewelry industry. Retail and wholesale trade, service industries, education,
government, and tourism grew. A severe economic blow came in 1973 when the U.S.
Navy, the state’s largest employer, announced that the Newport Naval Base and
the Quonset Point Naval Air Station would close, eliminating 4,000 civilian and
17,000 military jobs. Although the conversion of the Quonset base to an
industrial park created some new jobs, especially at Quonset’s Electric Boat
facility, unemployment remained high through the early 1980s.
Democrats dominated Rhode Island’s
politics through most of the period from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. The General
Assembly remained overwhelmingly Democratic since reapportionment in the
mid-1960s. With two exceptions, Democratic governors held office from 1951 until
1985. After that date, the governor’s office switched between Democrats and
Republicans. A series of corruption scandals dominated the state’s politics
beginning in the mid-1980s, involving the governor, mayors, and Supreme Court
justices, among others. Political and business corruption was so widespread that
the U.S. attorney who prosecuted many of the cases, Lincoln Almond, was
catapulted into the governor’s office in the 1994 elections. Almond campaigned
on a platform of restoring honest and economical government.
By 1986 the state’s economy was again
robust and unemployment had fallen to its lowest level in decades. Services and
high-technology industries accounted for most of the growth in jobs and income.
In the 1980s, real estate values in the Providence area grew faster than those
in any other metropolitan area in the United States.
Rhode Island’s economic boom of the
mid-1980s was followed by a sharp recession beginning in 1989, during which the
state’s credit union system collapsed, property values plummeted, unemployment
rose, and thousands of manufacturing jobs were lost, even in the jewelry
industry. Hard times caused the state’s population, which for the first time had
topped 1 million in the census of 1990, to dip below that mark, even though
Hispanic and Southeast Asian communities grew. A gradual economic upturn began
in 1993, and major construction projects were launched in downtown Providence,
including Waterplace Park, a new luxury hotel, and the urban mall called
Providence Place.
Although the Narragansett people had
been legally declared extinct by the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1880, they
incorporated in 1934 and gained federal recognition in 1983. In 1978 a claim
filed by the Narragansett to regain ancestral lands in Rhode Island was settled,
giving them 728 hectares (1,800 acres) in Charlestown. In the mid-1990s the
Narragansett had 2,400 members, most of whom lived in Rhode Island.
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