Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay for thousands of years before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century. Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker "Rogue's Island".
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. 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. Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution, which it initially refused to ratify; it finally ratified it on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 states to do so.
The state was officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since the colonial era but came to be commonly known as "Rhode Island". In November 2020, the state's voters approved an amendment to the state constitution formally dropping "and Providence Plantations" from its full name. Its official nickname is the "Ocean State", a reference to its 400 mi (640 km) of coastline and the large bays and inlets that make up about 14% of its area. (Full article...)
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Allenville Mill Storehouse in 2013
Allenville Mill Storehouse (also known as Company Storehouse or Allenville) is a historic mill storehouse at 5 Esmond Street in Esmond, Rhode Island within the town of Smithfield, Rhode Island. The exact date of construction is unknown, but it was built with rubble masonry construction which was typical of mill construction during and after the War of 1812. In 1813, Phillip Allen purchased 4.5 acres of land and constructed a mill on the site, but the first record to specifically refer to the storehouse was an insurance policy from 1836. Allen sold the property in 1857 and it changed ownership several times before it became Esmond Mills in 1906. In 1937, the building was used as a post office and described erroneously as the "Old Allenville Mill". The building has had some alterations to the front door and possibly the addition of a side door, but the interior of the structure was not detailed in the National Register of Historic Places nomination. The Allenville Mill Storehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. (Full article...)
Ninigret is a coastal lagoon in Charlestown, Rhode Island, in the United States, located at . It is the largest of the nine lagoons, or "salt ponds", in southern Rhode Island. It is utilized for recreational activities, as well as oyster and quahog harvesting. Found along its shores are "extensive" archaeological remains. Ninigret Pond, like others in the region, was "formed after the recession of the glaciers 12,000 years ago". The pond is situated on low-lying ground, and as such, it is considered particularly vulnerable to storm surge flooding. It is connected to Green Hill Pond via a small channel.
One hundred years after the declaration that all men are created equal, there began to gather in Newport a colony of the rich, determined to show that some Americans were conspicuously more equal than others.
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering 147 mi2 (380 km2). It forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago.
Image 3Rocky shoreline in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 4Topographic map of Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 5In 1936, on the 300th anniversary of the settlement of Rhode Island in 1636, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp, depicting Roger Williams (from Rhode Island)
Image 62Rhode Island population density map (from Rhode Island)
Image 63In 1936, on the 300th anniversary of the settlement of Rhode Island in 1636, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp, depicting Roger Williams (from Rhode Island)
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