Interesting Facts and Statistics

Let’s go back in history to 17-18th centuries and learn about ten interesting facts about Rhode Island when it was a Colony of the United States

1. On May 4, 1776 Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to Great Britain and declare independence, two months before any other state did it.

2. The colony was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams and others, in the city of Providence. Williams believed the Indians should be paid for the land. So he bought the land from the Indians.

3. Rhode Island’s major industry was agriculture such as livestock, dairy and fishing and manufacturing

4. Colony was named for “red island” in Dutch

5. The importation of slaves to the USA was first prohibited in Rhode Island in 1774

6. The first circus in the United States was in Newport in 1774.

7. The official name of the state, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, derives from the merger of two colonies.

8. The state was also the last to ratify the United States Constitution

9. Rhode Island covers an area of approximately 1,214 square miles (3,140 km2) and despite the name is not an island but a mainland

10. Rhode Island became a state on May 29, 1790

Pictures of Rhode Island colony

William believed that Indians should be payed for their land

Roger Willims who founded Rhonde Island Colony

This is how state looked like when it was a colony