Providence Plantations

While all eyes were on the presidential election, something tragic and startling was happening in New England.  The smallest state in the union, which has also had the longest name, severed itself from its renowned history, and now is simply -- the smallest state in the union.

The voters of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations decided to call themselves simply "Rhode Island."

Roger Williams founded the original 1636 settlement of Providence on the mainland, and received a "colonial patent" from King Charles I in 1843 under the name of "Providence Plantations."  (NOTE:  I am a direct descendent of Roger Williams¹ (my grandmother's maiden name was Williams), and hence feel competent to lodge this protest.)  Wikipedia notes that "plantation" was a common term at the time for a new colony, especially one based on agriculture.  The term was derived from the fact that crops were "planted."  If you visit the moors in Scotland and northern England, you see frequent references to local "plantations" -- which are what we in America would call "tree farms."  No slaves, of any race, are known to man these British plantations.

Richard Lee, a retired special-education director from Jamestown, and other opponents of the measure had argued the word “plantation” had no association with slavery when Roger Williams settled Providence in 1636. Then, the word referred only to a tract of land, or a farm. They argued “Providence Plantations” was history worth preserving.

Tom Mooney, The Providence Journal 

Nevertheless, the word "plantation" arouses images in many Americans' minds of southern plantations, magnolias, cotton fields, etc., tended by Black slaves, with Uncle Remus and mint juleps thrown in for good measure.  (Although Rhode Island, as an ocean port, was involved in the slave trade, possession of slaves itself was prohibited in 1652.)  I see no claim that the Providence Plantations used slave labor.  But the word itself has apparently become poison.

Whatever.

Other settlements developed in the area, including Portsmouth on today's Aquidneck Island.  The island at an early time became known as "Rhode Island," apparently because of its shape, which roughly resembles that of the Greek island of Rhodes.  Another settlement on Aquidneck was Newport.  The settlements united in 1647 as the "Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."  

The boundaries of the colony were disputed with the adjacent colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts over the years until they reached their present limits.  The present state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has a land area of 1,045 square miles, of which Aquidneck Island (the original "Rhode Island") makes up only 37.8 square miles.

To call the state "Rhode Island," therefore, is to allow the tail to wag the dog.  Furthermore, the state is not an island.  I submit that excising the "Providence Plantations" from the name -- leaving only "Rhode Island" -- is like calling the State of Washington the "State of Orcas Island."

If the word "plantation" is too offensive to contemplate, I have another suggestion that is both logically sound, historically accurate, and honors a proponent of religious liberty when religious liberty wasn't a popular cause.

"State of Williams."  

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¹At least, so my mother told me.   I don't have a geneology report to offer as evidence!