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Religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Mass. Bay Company). Enforcement was delayed until the following January due to illness. He became a founder of Rhode Island.
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Providence was founded as a Rhode Island settlement by Roger Williams.
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The Newport Compact, which formed the basis of the settlement, was signed in April by John Clarke, William Coddington, William Dyer, Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Henry Bull, Jeremy Clarke and Thomas Hazard.
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King Charles II of England granted John Clarke a charter for the colony of Rhode Island guaranteeing freedom of worship. He granted the charter giving the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations an elected governor and legislature. Roger Williams (1603-1683) authored the Rhode Island and Providence Plantation Charter, which stated that religion and conscience should never be restrained by civil supremacy.
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Narragansett and Nipmuck Indians raided Lancaster, Mass. Over 35 villagers were killed and 24 were taken captive including Mary Rowlandson and her 3 children. Rowlandson was freed after 11 weeks and an account of her captivity was published posthumously in 1682. Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA, The Great Swamp Memorial marks the site where 4,000 Indians died in defense of a secret fort.
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Rhode Island became the 1st colony to prohibit importation of slaves.
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Continental Congress approved the enlistment of free blacks. This led to the all-black First Rhode Island Regiment, composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves, who were promised freedom if they served to the end of the war. The regiment distinguished itself at the Battle of Newport
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Generals John Sullivan and Lafayette won a partial victory, but failed to oust the British.
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French troops under General Rochambeau were stationed in Rhode Island
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Rhode Island became the last of the 13 original colonies to ratify the United States Constitution. They held out for an amendment securing religious freedom. The state was largely founded by Baptists fleeing persecution in Massachusetts.
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In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 23-year-old British subject Samuel Slater began production of the first American spinning mill. The British jealously guarded their technological superiority in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, making it illegal for machinery, plans and even the men who built and repaired them to leave the country. After serving a 7-year mill apprenticeship in England, Slater recognized the potential offered in America.
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Providence lawyer Thomas Wilson Dorr founded a People's Party to liberalize the Rhode Island charter of 1663. He submitted a new, liberal constitution to extend suffrage in the state to those who didn't own property.
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Dorr's Rebellion led to constitutional reform
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Dorr's Rebellion in Rhode Island forces the state's conservatives to abolish the Charter of 1663 and expand suffrage
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25,236 Rhode Islanders fought in Civil War; 1,685 died
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Racial segregation was abolished
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President Rutherford Hayes tested new telephone, call from Rocky Point to Providence, distance 8 miles
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Rhode Island’s State Flag established
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Naval War college opened
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Joshua Slocum (1844-1909), a Canadian-American sailor, began a voyage around the world from Boston in a 37-foot rebuilt fishing boat called the Spray. He ended on Jun 27, 1898, at Newport, Rhode Island. His record was not beaten until 1938. In 1899 Slocum authored "Sailing Alone around the World."
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The passenger ship Larchmont was steaming through a winter storm in heavy seas, 4 miles southwest of Watch Hill, Rhode Island when she was rammed by the coal carrying schooner Harry P. Knowles, which had drifted off course in the blizzard. The Larchmont sank in 10 minutes and only 19 men including the captain, George McVey survived the ordeal.
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Bodies continued to wash ashore from the steamer Larchmont, which had collided the previous with a schooner off New England's Block Island. The vessel's quartermaster, James E. Staples, claimed a loss of 332.
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Rhode Island celebrated 300 year anniversary
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Hurricane killed about 600, caused significant damages
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In Rhode Island the Jamestown Bridge was completed. It connected North Kingstown and Jamestown. It was demolished in 2006 and replaced by the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge.
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Hurricane Carol struck, 19 killed, 3,800 homes lost, over $90,000,000 in damages
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Blizzard of 78 worst snowstorm in history, 21 lives lost
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World Prodigy, 500-foot tanker, spilled million gallons of fuel near Newport, Rhode Island
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Tug towing barge caught fire, millions of gallons of fuel oil spilled near South Kingstown
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Nightclub fire in West Warwick, 100 died
