Providence Plantation
| Rhode Island and Providence Plantations | ||||||||||
| Colony of England (1636–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–1776) |
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| Capital | Providence, Newport | |||||||||
| Languages | English, Narragansett | |||||||||
| Government | Crown Colony | |||||||||
| History | ||||||||||
| • | Established | 1636 | ||||||||
| • | Foundation | 1637 | ||||||||
| • | Chartered as an English colony | 1644 | ||||||||
| • | Coddington Commission | 1651–1653 | ||||||||
| • | Royal Charter | 1663 | ||||||||
| • | Part of the Dominion of New England | 1686–1688 | ||||||||
| • | Resumption of Royal Charter | 1688 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 1776 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 United States
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The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It was a colony of the Kingdom of England from 1636 to 1707, when the Acts of Union were passed, and then a colony of the unified Kingdom of Great Britain until 1776. After the American Revolution, it became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known as just Rhode Island).
The land that became the English colony was first home to the Narragansett Indians, which led to the name of the modern town of Narragansett, showing respect to the Narragansett and Nipmuc peoples. European settlement began around 1622 with a trading post at Sowams, now the town of Warren.
Roger Williams, a Puritan theologian and linguist, founded Providence Plantations in 1636 on land given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus. Williams was exiled under religious persecution from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He and his fellow settlers agreed on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule "in civil things," with liberty of conscience on spiritual matters. He named the settlement Providence Plantation, believing that God had brought them there. (The term "plantation" was used in the 17th century as a synonym for "settlement" or "colony.") Williams named the islands in the Narragansett Bay after Christian virtues: Patience, Prudence, and Hope Islands.
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