R.I. May End Link To Slavery Past

(AP)  The country's smallest state has the longest official name: "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

A push to drop "Providence Plantations" from that name advanced farther than ever on Thursday when House lawmakers voted 70-3 to let residents decide whether their home should simply be called the "State of Rhode Island."

It's an encouraging sign for those who believe the formal name conjures up images of slavery, while opponents argue it's an unnecessary rewriting of history that ignores Rhode Island's tradition of religious liberty and tolerance.

The bill permitting a statewide referendum on the issue next year now heads to the state Senate.

"It's high time for us to recognize that slavery happened on plantations in Rhode Island and decide that we don't want that chapter of our history to be a proud part of our name," said Rep. Joseph Almeida, an African-American lawmaker who sponsored the bill.

Rhode Island's unwieldy name reflects its turbulent colonial history, a state that consisted of multiple and sometimes rival settlements populated by dissidents.

Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his unorthodox religious views, minister Roger Williams set out in 1636 and settled at the northern tip of Narragansett Bay, which he called Providence Plantations. Williams founded the first Baptist church in America and became famous for embracing the separation of church and state, a legal principle enshrined in the Bill of Rights a century later.

Other settlers made their homes in modern-day Portsmouth and Newport on Aquidneck Island, then known as the Isle of Rhodes.

In 1663, English King Charles II granted a royal charter joining all the settlements into a single colony called "The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." The name stuck. Rhode Island used that royal charter as its governing document until 1843.

Opponents of the name charge argue that "plantations" was used at the time to describe any farming settlements, regardless of slavery.

Rhode Island merchants did, however, make their fortunes off the slave trade. Slaves helped construct Brown University in Providence, and a prominent slave trader paid half the cost of its first library.

Still, Stanley Lemons, a professor emeritus of history at Rhode Island College, said changing the state's name ignores the accomplishments of Williams, whose government passed laws trying to prevent the permanent servitude of whites, blacks and American Indians.

"There are different meanings for this word," Lemons said. "To try to impose their experience on everyone else wipes out Roger Williams."

[ToolMangler1]

I am curious as to why the 'smallest' state in the union has the 'Largest name' anyway.....

[richardshumway]

Maybe Rhode Island should just call itself Rhode. Slavery happened on islands too. Another "link to slavery past" can be broken.

[willcad]

I must agree that a lot of modern folks misunderstand words and symbols of the past. The word "plantation" is defined in Miriam-Websters Online Dictionary thus:

Pronunciation: \plan-?t?-sh?n\
Function: noun
Date: 15th century

1: a usually large group of plants and especially trees under cultivation

2: a settlement in a new country or region <Plymouth Plantation>
3: a: a place that is planted or under cultivation b: an agricultural estate usually worked by resident labor

So the inclusion of the word plantation doesn't necessarily refer to a slave-worked estate; it can refer to pretty much any farm or orchard.

[dutch_tower]

Fact checker-- you missed one.

"separation of church and state" appears nowhere in the bill of rights. it's been constitutionalized by the USSC but it's not in the original text.

[willcad]

It's true that the term "separation of church and state" is not a direct quote from the Constitution; however, it is a modern term referring to the Framers' intent when they wrote "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"

Similarly, many modern scholars use the term "right to privacy", when the word "privacy" appears nowhere in the actual text of the Constitution. However, the term is generally used to refer to the Framers' intent when they wrote "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."