Rhode Island

I

Introduction

Rhode Island, state in the northeastern United States, in New England, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the 13 original colonies to declare its independence from Great Britain. However, it was the last of the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution of the United States, doing so on May 29, 1790. The smallest state in the Union, it is, after New Jersey, the second most densely populated and one of the most highly industrialized. Its name is a paradox, since most of the state is part of the North American mainland. The name Rhode Island is the official name of the largest island of Narragansett Bay, an estuary that extends through the eastern part of the state. On most maps of the United States, the state appears so small that it is difficult to identify, but its influence is more widely felt than its tiny size would warrant. Providence is Rhode Island’s capital and its largest city.

Settlement of Rhode Island dates from 1636, when Roger Williams founded Providence after he had been banished from Massachusetts because of religious and political conflicts with the Puritans. This background of dissent made the colony tolerant of other religious groups.

Rhode Island prospered initially from the sea. Narragansett Bay, having some of the finest harbors on the Atlantic Seaboard, sheltered merchant vessels, privateers, slave runners, and even pirates. With the decline of high profits from maritime commerce, Rhode Island turned in the 1790s to manufacturing. The development of textile manufacturing, along with that of machinery, metal products, jewelry, and silverware, led to such a concentration of industry and population that Rhode Island has virtually become a city-state. However, there remains much unspoiled beauty in the islands and inlets of Narragansett Bay, in the lagoons and salt marshes of the Atlantic shore, and in the rolling hills of Block Island, about 16 km (about 10 mi) out at sea.

Historians disagree over the source of the name Rhode Island. Some claim that it was first used by the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524, when he compared Block Island to the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. Others maintained that the name is a corruption of Roodt Eylandt (Red Island), the name applied to Aquidneck Island in 1614 by the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block because of the red clay on the island’s shore. Roger Williams, the English Puritan who founded the Rhode Island colony, was the first to refer to Aquidneck as Rhode Island. The name was incorporated into the official title of the colony in 1663 and, later, of the state. Rhode Island’s official nickname is the Ocean State. The state’s small size led to the emergence of what is now its most common, although unofficial, nickname, Little Rhody.

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II

Physical Geography

Rhode Island covers an area of only 4,002 sq km (1,545 sq mi), including 461 sq km (178 sq mi) of inland water and 23 sq km (9 sq mi) of coastal water over which it has jurisdiction. Roughly rectangular in shape, its maximum extent east to west is 64 km (40 mi), while the distance from its northern border to the southern edge of Block Island is 98 km (61 mi). The mean elevation is 60 m (200 ft).

A

Natural Regions

Rhode Island lies wholly within the New England province of the Appalachian Region, or Appalachian Highland, and can be divided into two natural regions. In eastern Rhode Island are the lowlands of the Narragansett Basin, which is a part of New England’s Seaboard Lowland. The west forms part of the New England Upland.

The Narragansett Basin occupies the eastern third of Rhode Island and is a low-lying area of sands and clays. Few points in the basin rise to more than 60 m (200 ft) above sea level. Narragansett Bay and its tributary bays cut deeply into the region. To the east of Narragansett Bay are several low ridges of sedimentary rock that rise above the surrounding lowland. West of the bay the land is more gently rolling and there are many small lakes and ponds. To the extent that there is agriculture in Rhode Island, the Narragansett Basin is the state’s chief farming region.

The New England Upland occupies the western two-thirds of Rhode Island. It is underlain by granite and other resistant crystalline rocks and rises sharply from about 60 m (about 200 ft) at the edge of the Narragansett Basin. Jerimoth Hill, 247 m (812 ft) above sea level and the state’s highest point, is located in this region near the Connecticut state line. The surface of the upland is generally rocky. There are some farms and much woodland.

B

Rivers and Lakes

Except for a small area along the border with Connecticut, all of northern Rhode Island is drained by river systems that discharge into Narragansett Bay, while rivers in the south drain directly into the Atlantic Ocean. The largest drainage region that is entirely within the state is that of the Pawtuxet River system. It extends over one-fourth of the state’s land area. Many of the rivers are interrupted by small waterfalls and rapids, which were a valuable source of waterpower for Rhode Island’s earliest industries, and which powered the much more significant textile industry when it developed during the 19th century. The Blackstone River is the longest and most important of the state’s rivers. It crosses from Massachusetts into Rhode Island near Woonsocket and then flows southeast, joining the Seekonk River at Pawtucket. Other rivers are the Woonasquatucket and the Moshassuck, which join shortly before entering the Providence River, and the Pawcatuck, which drains southwestern Rhode Island and forms part of the Connecticut-Rhode Island border.

Rhode Island has no large natural lakes, but there are 383 lakes and ponds that have surface areas of 20 hectares (50 acres) or greater. Extending over 419 hectares (1,036 acres), Worden Pond is the largest natural freshwater body in the state. Among the impoundments, the Scituate Reservoir is largest at 1,470 hectares (3,633 acres). Created by damming the North Branch of the Pawtuxet River, it supplies water to more than one-half the population of Rhode Island.

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