The state’s official name, “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” appears on state documents. Newport, the colony's leading slave port, took an estimated 59,070 slaves to America before the Revolution. The clergyman Roger Williams, banished by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay for propagating "new and dangerous opinions," founded the Providence Plantations in June 1636. But the order would shorten it to just “Rhode Island”. Vote YES! In other words, Rhode Island itself has as much culpability in the history of slavery as Providence Plantations. The Providence Plantations were the first white settlements in Rhode Island. https://www.history.com/news/slavery-new-england-rhode-island PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, RHODE ISLAND ANDPROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, RHODE ISLAND AND. For periods of 10 years or less, it was still permitted to … The folks in ‘Providence Plantations’ were among the first principled opponents of slavery anywhere in the Americas, certainly in New England and by most measures everywhere in North America. Williams bought a large tract of land from … For one thing, the law, which only applied to Providence and Warwick, banned lifetime ownership of slaves. Voters will have a chance in 2010 to remove the reference to “Providence Plantations” as part of a referendum pushed by advocates who argue that the reference to “plantations” is insensitive to blacks and perpetuates a racist image. As the debate about removing “and Providence Plantations” from the official state name rages across Rhode Island, the most common rebuttal to the claim that the phrase evokes the horrors of slavery is “slavery never came to Rhode Island.” Au, contraire: Rhode Island was unquestionably built on the backs of slaves and profits from the […] Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has everything to do with slavery. The use of the word “plantations” had nothing to do with, and predated, slavery in Rhode Island. Providence Plantation and Samuel Gorton’s town of Warwick joined in 1652 to pass America’s first anti-slavery ordinance. Unfortunately, after … From 1732-64, Rhode Islanders sent annually 18 ships, bearing 1,800 hogsheads of rum, to Africa to trade for slaves, earning £40,000 annually. Conversations around the history of slavery had been pushed to the margins for many decades. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive order on Monday taking the 'first steps' to change the state's full name: 'The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.' Bristol and Providence also prospered from it. However the community has and is reclaiming this experience confronting the history of slavery in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations thanks to … The ports of Providence and Newport were both major points in the slave trade triangle. Rhode Island should strip ‘Providence Plantations’ from its name ... economic forces and rising abolitionist sentiment had put an end to Rhode Island’s slave plantations. Major points in the history of slavery as Providence Plantations had been pushed to the margins for decades... In 1652 to pass America ’ s official name, “ the state ’ s town of Warwick in. Warwick, banned lifetime ownership of slaves settlements in Rhode Island ” as Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Plantations. 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