Rhode Island - The Smallest State and the First to Declare Independence
Rhode Island covers 1,034 square miles, making it the smallest state in the United States by area and small enough to fit inside many individual counties of larger states. About 1.1 million people live on that footprint, giving the state one of the higher population densities in the country. Narragansett Bay cuts deep into the land from the south and effectively shapes the geography, with Providence at the head of the bay and Newport near its mouth on Aquidneck Island. Block Island lies twelve miles off the southern coast.
Providence is the largest city and the capital, with a population of about 190,000. Brown University, founded in 1764 as the seventh college in the American colonies, sits on College Hill above downtown, and the Rhode Island School of Design occupies adjoining blocks and ranks among the most selective art and design schools in the country. The Providence economy runs on higher education, healthcare through Lifespan and Care New England, and a growing presence of biomedical research. The textile mills that powered the state through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are mostly closed or repurposed, though the mill buildings along the Blackstone River still define the landscape from Pawtucket north to Woonsocket.
Newport anchors the state's tourism economy. The mansions commissioned by the Vanderbilts and their peers during the Gilded Age, including The Breakers and Marble House, are preserved as museums by the Preservation Society of Newport County and draw millions of visitors annually. The U.S. Naval War College has operated in Newport since 1884, and the U.S. Navy retains a significant presence at Naval Station Newport. Narragansett Bay sailing culture, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals together fill the summer calendar.
Rhode Island's founding story matters here. The colony declared its independence from Britain on May 4, 1776, two months before the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, making it the first of the thirteen colonies to formally break with the crown. Roger Williams founded Providence in 1636 as a refuge for dissenters from Massachusetts Bay, and the religious pluralism that grew out of that founding shaped the colony's later tolerance of Quaker, Baptist, and Jewish communities. Touro Synagogue in Newport, dedicated in 1763, is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States.
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Rhode Island covers 1,034 square miles, making it the smallest state in the United States by area and small enough to fit inside many individual counties of larger states. About 1.1 million people live on that footprint, giving the state one of the higher population densities in the country. Narragansett Bay cuts deep into the land from the south and effectively shapes the geography, with Providence at the head of the bay and Newport near its mouth on Aquidneck Island. Block Island lies twelve miles off the southern coast.
Providence is the largest city and the capital, with a population of about 190,000. Brown University, founded in 1764 as the seventh college in the American colonies, sits on College Hill above downtown, and the Rhode Island School of Design occupies adjoining blocks and ranks among the most selective art and design schools in the country. The Providence economy runs on higher education, healthcare through Lifespan and Care New England, and a growing presence of biomedical research. The textile mills that powered the state through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are mostly closed or repurposed, though the mill buildings along the Blackstone River still define the landscape from Pawtucket north to Woonsocket.
Newport anchors the state's tourism economy. The mansions commissioned by the Vanderbilts and their peers during the Gilded Age, including The Breakers and Marble House, are preserved as museums by the Preservation Society of Newport County and draw millions of visitors annually. The U.S. Naval War College has operated in Newport since 1884, and the U.S. Navy retains a significant presence at Naval Station Newport. Narragansett Bay sailing culture, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals together fill the summer calendar.
Rhode Island's founding story matters here. The colony declared its independence from Britain on May 4, 1776, two months before the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, making it the first of the thirteen colonies to formally break with the crown. Roger Williams founded Providence in 1636 as a refuge for dissenters from Massachusetts Bay, and the religious pluralism that grew out of that founding shaped the colony's later tolerance of Quaker, Baptist, and Jewish communities. Touro Synagogue in Newport, dedicated in 1763, is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States.
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