The Colony of Rhode Island
By Eliana

The Colony of Rhode Island

        The people who settled in Rhode Island first settled in Massachusetts.  In Massachusetts anyone who disagreed with the Puritans was considered a lawbreaker.  A man named Roger Williams did not like Puritans.  He thought that people should believe whatever they wanted.  Roger Williams was the person who made Rhode Island a state. 

Williams Leaves Massachusetts

        One day Roger Williams got in a fight with the Puritans in Massachusetts.  They were going to send him back to England but he ran to Narragansett Bay.  Narragansett is the land that would some day be Rhode Island.  On his way he stayed with the Wampanoag Indians for a while.    

A New Beginning

        Some people agreed with Roger Williams and thought that people should be able to believe whatever they wanted.  They wanted to start a new colony.  More and more people started to agree with Roger Williams.  The people lived near a new town named Providence.  They built Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick.  The towns formed one colony in 1643.  Roger Williams went to England and asked the King if these four towns could become a colony.  He said that they could in the year of 1790. 

Growth and Change

        Twenty years later there was a new king.  Williams went to England to get a charter that said anyone could practice any religion.  It also said that the Rhode Islanders could choose their own leaders.  Any man in Rhode Island who owned land could vote. 

The Indians and the Settlers fight

        Roger Williams was nice to the Indians.  He even learned some of their language.  Lots of the settlers took the Indians’ land without giving them something in return.  Roger Williams attempted to make all settlers give money to the Indians for the land they took from them but that did not work.  In 1662 the Indians got a new chief.  His name was Chief Massasoit.  Chief Massasoit was angry with the colonial people because they were not giving his people money yet they were taking their land.  Chief Massasoit got four other tribes to join him.  They tried to drive all the settlers out of the land.  Chief Massasoit died during that war. 

Colonial Farms and Businesses

        Six thousand people lived in Rhode Island in 1700.  Towns that were by the ocean were very busy gathering all kinds of seafood.  People built ships.  The ships were used to carry beef and wool to colonies other than their own.  Some people killed whales.  The whale oil was used for oil in lamps, and there was also a waxy substance used for making candles.  Big boats took African people from Africa to Rhode Island to work as slaves.  The people of Rhode Island were good and smart people, but they still did not know that it was cruel to make people work as slaves.

England Taxes the Colonists

        Rhode Island was getting rich and some people in England wanted the money.  France and England were in a small war over who got to own America.  When the war was over, England's soldiers wanted money for putting their lives in danger.  Guess how they decided to raise money?  They raised the taxes on the settlers.  Some colonists decided that they thought this was an unfair law so they did not pay their taxes.  When the colonists refused to pay those taxes England made soldiers go to America to make sure that the colonists paid the taxes.   This was the main cause of the American Revolution.

The Colonists Rebel                                                    

        The colonists did not like the English soldiers on their land so they burned two of their ships.  The ships were the Liberty and the Gaspee.  So the colonists asked the king if they could have their own new country.  The king said that they could not do this.  He had troops of English soldiers march to Lexington, Massachusetts.  This was the first part of the war. 

        Rhode Island was the first colony to protest and say that they were against King George lll’s laws.  I admire Rhode Island because of that.  I lived there for a year.  I can see that it has changed a lot.  I also think that it was brave of them to not pay their taxes at a time when they were supposed to listen to the laws of England.         

 To the People and Projects
Comments? Email Mrs. Gurwicz
Last Updated: 03/09/06