Rhode Island and Independence

Unlike the other colonies that existed in the late 18th century, Rhode Island was in a unique situation in regards to its political situation and its ties with the British Crown. In 1663, King Charles II granted Rhode Islanders with a Royal Charter. This Charter granted its citizens not only religious freedom, but freedom to govern themselves. They were thus enabled to vote for their own Governor, as well as their own Legislature. This situation was incredibly unique for British North America, save for Maryland, which also received a charter from Charles II.

This royal charter,however, did not save Rhode Island from the taxation which was imposed on their fellow colonies during the 18th century. As a colony that was predominately centered around maritime trade, Rhode Island was heavy hit by the Molasses Act of 1733, and the Sugar Act of 1764. Rhode Islanders not only felt as though these acts prohibited their right to freedom of commerce, but they also felt as though they should not be taxed whatsoever, as they possesed the Royal Charter.

The two major newspapers in Rhode Island, the Providence Gazette and the Newport Mercury were outspoken in their distaste for British imposition on the colony's commerce, and both provided a platform for the colony leaders to motivate Rhode Islanders to work against British agents who patrolled Narragansett Bay, eager to enforce both acts. This is evident in the publication of an essay by Governor Stephen Hopkins, entitled Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies, which spoke of the ramifications of these acts on a colony that revolved around the importation of molasses. The essay was first printed in the Mercury, and gained such widespread popularity that it was eventually reprinted in papers in New York and Boston.

The Mercury also provided an insight on how the common population of Newport reacted to taxation. In September 1765, they were not afraid to let their feelings known to British officials who were in town to enforce the Stamp Act, such as Martin Howard. "A Mob collected, and marched directly to Mr. Howard's ; and not finding the Gentleman there, they shattered some of the Windows, and went off. But not satisified with the Mischief they had done, they soon returned to the Charge with redoubled Fury, broke the Windows and doors all to Pieces, damaged the Partitions of the House, and ruined such Furniture as was left in it." Needless to say, Mr. Howard no longer felt welcome in Newport, and immedeatly left town (he had received word of the planned attack on his home, and sought refuge aboard a British sloop in Newport Harbor for the night).

By 1772, Rhode Island frustration over British taxation reached its boiling point when a British Navy schooner, the H.M.S. Gaspee, was boarded by 100 Rhode Islanders who were angered by the ships presence in Naragansett Bay, to prohibit smuggling. The Gaspee raid was organized by prominent families in Providence, Pawtucket, and Rehobeth. The ship was boarded in the dark of night, and the raiders were met with little resistance. Lieutenant Dudsington led the defense, but was shot in both the arm and groin, and the Gaspee was burned to the waterline.

The raid of the Gaspee was the first planned attack against the British military in the colonies, as well as the first intent to kill a British military officer. Rhode Island, without question, led the way in defiance against the Crown, both in terms of physical attacks, and political defiance. Rhode Island was the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain, on May 4, 1776.

As evident in this blog, from its inception in 1636, through 1776, Rhode Island was a colony that thrived on freedom, whether it be in terms of religious freedom, political, or commercial. It provided the first form of democracy in the colonies, and served as a political model for years to come. As a sidenote, the Royal Charter of 1663 that was granted to Rhode Island served as the state's constitution until November 1842. ___________________________________________________

British Parliament; Stamp Act. (10/28/1765). Newport Mercury

Soul Liberty into the 18th century

By the end of the 17th century, Rhode Island, which was now predominately Baptist and Quaker, had no clear religious leader. Roger Williams had died in 1683, and Rhode Island Baptists, through Williams' teachings, had grown to distrust learned religious leaders.


Rhode Island was also left adrift with another problem after their founder's death. Since its inception, the colony had prided itself on allowing all to pursue "soul liberty", and thus had no state religion. As a result, Rhode Island was without any outside social connections to the other colonies.

These problems that Rhode Island faced at the end of one century were quickly addressed at the beginning of another. In 1703, Anglican ministers in London established the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which sent fellow ministers to the colonies to spread the Anglican faith. James Honeyman was sent to Newport in the same year, and his arrival hoped to foster imperial patriotism, align the rich and powerful of the colony with the Crown, and, undermine the growing influence of the Quakers and Baptists. The Society was quite successful, and 22 years later, Newport built Trinity Church, now the oldest Episcopal parish in Rhode Island.

The Congregationalist Church also began to gain parishioners in the early 18th century, when towns in the eastern portion of the colony, such as Bristol, became Rhode Island towns(they were formally a part of Massachusetts). The Congregationalists had their roots in the Puritan tradition that existed in the 17th century.



Newport was the second city in British North America to have a Jewish community, which arrived in 1658 from Brazil. While Judaism did not gain any converts in the colony, they were quick to make an impact on both the religious and economic level. Many Jews were prominent merchants in Newport, such as Aaron Lopez, who dominated the whaling trade in the mid 18th century. In 1759, the Jewish community built the first synagogue in North America, known as the Touro Synagogue.

Unlike other colonies, colonists in Rhode Island had the ability to choose a faith that satisfied their own needs, either spiritually, or even socially. By the mid 18th century, the switch Rhode Islanders made to realigning churches with traditions of learning and magnificence, allowed them to create links with the outside world, whether it be through the Anglicans, who established a solid Newport-London link, or the Congregationalists who established a Providence-Boston link.
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-Crane, Elaine Foreman. A Dependant People: Newport, Rhode Island in the Revolutionary Era. Fordham UP: New York, NY. 1985.

Rhode Island Rum

The economy of Rhode Island was centered around the bustling port of Newport, located on Aquidneck Island near the mouth of the Narragansett. Providence, to the north, at the head of the Naragansett, was a significantly large center of population, although it did not contribute nearly as much as Newport to the colony's economy.

Newport, about 30 miles to the south of Providence, because of its location, is known by most to be the center of the slave trade for New England. Many of the merchants began their involvement in the trade to more or less diversify their portfolios, as Newport was far more involved in the business of import than in export.

The soil of Rhode Island, rocky and sandy, was extremely unforgiving to farmers attempting to grow any sort of substanial crop, but several farmers located in the southern half of the colony were successful in making dairy products, raising cattle, as well as sheep.

Rhode Island was well known throughout the colonial Atlantic world for its rum, and one of its towns, Bristol, was home to 5 distilleries, used solely for the production of rum. This rum, which was made from molasses imported from the West Indies, was transported by the Newport merchants across the Atlantic to the west coast of Africa, where it was traded for slaves. Rhode Island was also used throughout the colonies, although more often than not, the rum was used by colonists to preserve meat, instead of its far more favorable use, drinking it.

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-Rhode Island Rum-www.rumspiritof1776.com/index.php/rumabilia/rhode-island-rum/

-Crane, Elaine Foreman. A Dependant People: Newport, Rhode Island in the Revolutionary Era. Fordham UP: New York, NY. 1985.

King Philip's War in Rhode Island

While an overwhelming majority of the atrocities of King Philip's War took place in Massachusetts, an overwhelming large percentage of natives who partook in those atrocities hailed from Rhode Island. Mary Rowlandson, known for her narrative describing her captivity during the war, was captured by a group of Narragansett Indians. King Philip himself, although a Wampanoag, made his home in what is now Mount Hope, Rhode Island, in the eastern part of the state along the border with Massachusetts.
But what is regarded as perhaps the largest atrocity committed by either side during the short-lived war took place in southern Rhode Island, near present day Kingston. This atrocity, otherwise known as the Great Swamp Fight (or Massacre), was fought between English forces from the United Colonies, a coalition of troops from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut, and the Narragansett Indians.
At the outset of the war, the Narragansett remained neutral, while the neighboring Wampanoag took their chances by taking on the English. However, as the Wampanoag attacks increased in severity in western and southeastern Massachusetts, the English became more eager to crush the natives for the burning of their towns. The United Colonies had a fairly significant distrust of the Narragansett, unlike Rhode Island, who up until the winter of 1675, had an amicable relationship.

The start of the war, in the spring of 1675, which included raids on both warring sides, led to a small Wampanoag population that sought refuge among the Narragansett. Massachusetts Bay authorities demanded the release of these refugees, but the Narragansett sachem, Canonchet, refused, saying, "No, not a Wampanoag, nor the pairing of a Wampanoag's nail." This refusal ultimately plunged the until then peaceful Narragansett into the depths of the war. On November 2, the United Colonies declared war on the Narragansett, while the Canonchet and his tribe fleed from the shores of the Narragansett Bay into a large fort on an island in a swamp, known as the Great Swamp.

In December of 1675, the English received word on the location of the Narragansett, and Josiah Winslow, the Governor of Plymouth Colony, led an army of 1,000 United Colonists into the Great Swamp, to confront the Narragansett.

The Naragansetts of Rhode Island

When settled in 1636, Rhode Island & The Providence Plantations were inhabited by three Algonquian tribes; the Niantic, in the southwest corner of Rhode Island, the Wampanoags, who inhabited a small sliver of the eastern part of the colony, and the Narragansetts, who inhabited the majority of present-day Rhode Island. It is for this reason that this article will discuss solely the Narragansett Tribe.
"Narragansett" roughly translates to "people of the little points and bays," referring to Narragansett Bay, the large bay in the eastern half of Rhode Island, filled with small archipelagos and points. The majority of the Narragansett population during the 17th century was located on the western shore of the Bay.
A fairly, if not highly successful and organized tribe before the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620, they were first described in 1524 by Italian explorer Giovanni Verrazano as handsome, friendly, and shy. However, upon the arrival of permanent settlers, the Narragansett sachem, Miantonomi, grew worried that the new settlers, or Cutthroats, as he referred to them, would ruin the ways of the Narragansett. So, as a welcoming gift for the Plymouth colony, he sent a snakeskin filled with arrows. Governor Bradford returned Miantonomi's favor by sending him a snakeskin full of bullets. Needless to say, the Narragansett never did attack the colony. Roger Williams soon arrived in Narragansett territory in 1636, where he was cordially welcomed by a band of natives, including Miantonomi, and acquired land from them. Miantonomi is also noted for unsuccessfully attempting to form an alliance between natives in Long Island and New England, and because of this attempt, he was actually murdered by the sachem of the Pequot tribe of Connecticut, Uncas.
The relations between the Narragansett and the colonists of Rhode Island were generally peaceful for the first 40 years of white settlement, which can most likely be due to the fact that Roger Williams was at the spearhead of the movement to promote peaceful relations with the natives.
The Narragansetts lived in harmony with their surroundings, making the most of the summer by living close to the Bay, where they could catch fish, gather shellfish, and plant crops. During the autumn and winter months, the tribe would move towards the interior of Rhode Island, where they could hunt, and harvest their crops. The women Narragansetts were responsible for the cultivation of crops, while the males were responsible for the hunting. The cold winters were indeed harsh, but they prepared themselves by smoking meats and storing their crops away, so that they could last through the winter and provide them properly with nutrition.
Their control of Narragansett Bay proved to be beneficial, as wampum, or, the shell of a quahog(clam), was the main currency used in trade between both the colonists, as well as other neighboring tribes, ranging from the Mohawks to the west and the Massachusett to the north. Wampum was also used to make jewlery and belts, but its primary use in the New England region was currency.
As for communication between the natives and the colonists of Rhode Island, the citizens of Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth had one person to thank, and that was, of course, none other than Roger Williams. Williams, in 1643, actually published a book containing a translation guide for the Narragansett language, in addition to a study of their traditions. This book, coupled with the religious freedoms provided in the colony, provided an easy going, and profitable(for both parties) relationship that lasted nearly 50 years, until the aggression of the other New England colonies against the other New England native peoples
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Sources:
Conforti, Joseph A. Saints and Strangers:New England in British North America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005
Simmons, William S. The Narragansett. New York, NY: Chelsea House, 1989.

The founding of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation

The colonial history of Rhode Island truly begins in the mind of Roger Williams, a noted theologian who arrived in Boston shortly after finishing his studies at Cambridge University in England in 1631. Like most settlers who left England in the early 1600s, Williams lost hope in the state of his home nation, and wanted to live, with his wife, in a land where he would be free to practice religion through other means than the Church of England. He was warmly received upon his arrival, although the colonial governments sediments towards Williams soon turned sour when he began using his sermons to preach his own ideas, instead of the Bible.
These ideas included Williams' disagreement that the court magistrates should not punish its citizens that violate the Ten Commandments, such as not observing the Sabbath, believing that those people would, in the end, be punished by God. Williams did not buy into the idea that the colonists had to submit a patent to the King in order to settle a piece of land, instead, he held the idea that colonists should consult with the natives, for they were the rightful owners of the land.
It was these ideas that Williams consistently held, and preached, that lead him to his banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636. He was to be sent back to England, but made an escape to the southeast, where he bought lands at the head of Narragansett Bay from the Narragansett Indians, and founded the town of Providence. Williams was now able to freely preach his ideas, free to practice his own religion, free from persecution, as were others who made their way to the new colony, Rhode Island.
In nearly all sources read, there is one clear hero, Roger Williams, who is viewed as a colonist who was far ahead of his time, and there is one clear villain, the colonial government of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Plymouth Colony. One can understand Williams frustration upon his arrival, discovering that those who were persecuted routinely in England, had transformed themselves into persecutors during their voyage across the Atlantic. The Puritan way, as men such as John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay, wanted people to think, was the only way. And if someone did not follow that way, they were labeled as heretics and sinners. Williams saw through what the Puritan leaders were casting on the colonists, and wanted a colony of his own where no theocracy would exist, where people were free to think, act, and believe whatever they wanted.
Clearly, Puritans in Massachusetts thought the idea of a colony where its citizens would be free from theocratic control was ludicrous. In their minds, Rhode Island quickly turned into the sewer of New England. But in the minds of Rhode Islanders, and present day scholars, the colony became a guiding light for democracy in the New World.
The freedom from a government regulated by religion allowed Rhode Islanders to pursue other worldly interests, including trade, namely maritime trade. Within a few short years after Williams purchase of Providence from the Narragansett, Rhode Island catapulted itself to the forefront of maritime trade in the Atlantic world.

What's the difference between Rhode Island, and the Providence Plantations?
The Providence Plantations were the settlements located at the head, of the most northern location of Naragansett Bay. They may also be described as the settlements located on the mainland of Rhode Island. These settlements included Providence, and Warwick (settled in 1643). Rhode Island was, in the 17th century, the name used from Aquideck Island, located to the southeast of the Providence Plantations in Naragansett Bay. The two main settlements on Rhode Island were Portsmouth(settled in 1638), and Newport(settled in 1639). Rhode Island to this day is officially known as Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations.
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Sources
Conforti, Joseph A. Saints and Strangers:New England in British North America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005. 90-95.
Knowles, James D. Memoir of Roger Williams. Boston, MA: Lincoln, Edmands and Co., 1834.
Richman, Irving. Rhode Island: A Study in Separatism. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1905.
Picture from The Navy and Rhode Island: A History, http://www.nuwc.navy.mil/hq/history/0002.html