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The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was an English colony on the eastern coast of America, founded in 1636 by Puritan minister Roger Williams after his exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It became a haven for religious dissenters and was known for its commitment to religious freedom and self-governance.
Rhode Island was the first colony in America to declare independence on May 4, 1776, a full two months before the United States Declaration of Independence. [11] Rhode Islanders had attacked the British warship HMS Gaspee in 1772 as one of the first acts of war leading to the American Revolution.
The following individuals were among the earliest settlers of Aquidneck Island in the Narragansett Bay; the island was officially named Rhode Island by 1644, [30] from which the entire colony eventually took its name. The first group of 58 names appears to be settlers of Pocasset (later Portsmouth), while the second group of 42 appears to be ...
Rhode Island was the first colony to call for a Continental Congress, in 1774, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776. [12] After the American Revolution, during which it was heavily occupied and contested, Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, on February 9, 1778. [13]
The Rhode Island Royal Charter provided royal recognition to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, approved by England's King Charles II in July 1663. It superseded the 1643 Patent for Settlement and outlined many freedoms for the inhabitants of Rhode Island. It was the guiding document of the colony's government (and that of ...
The General Court of Rhode Island met at Warwick on May 22, 1649, and ordered that letters be sent to Arnold and the other Pawtuxet settlers in reference to their subjecting themselves to the Rhode Island colony. [13] This did not happen, and the Pawtuxet settlers continued under Massachusetts for another nine years. [14]
The Rhode Island Charter was suspended from 1686-1689. During this time, Sir Edmund Andros served as Governor of the Dominion of New England, which included Rhode Island. Andros was deposed on April 18, 1689.
Roger Williams (c. 1603 – March 1683) [1] was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and later the State of Rhode Island.