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The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations , more commonly referred to as Rhode Island ( /ˌroʊd ˈaɪlɨnd/ (help·info) or /rɵˈdaɪlɨnd/ ), is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area. Rhode Island borders Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and shares a water boundary with New York's Fishers Island to the southwest.

Despite the name, most of Rhode Island is on the mainland United States. The name Rhode Island and Providence Plantations derives from the merger of two colonies, Providence Plantations and Rhode Island. Providence Plantations was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the area now known as the City of Providence. Rhode Island, the other colonial settlement, was founded in the area of present-day Newport, on Aquidneck Island, the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay.

Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen original colonies to declare independence from British rule and the last to ratify the United States Constitution.

Rhode Island's official nickname is "The Ocean State," a reference to the state's geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 30% of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km ² ), but its total area is significantly larger (in the United States, all seawater and ocean floors that are more than three nautical miles from land belong to the Federal Government.)

The capital of Rhode Island is Providence. The state's current governor is Donald L. Carcieri (R), and the lieutenant governor is Elizabeth H. Roberts. Its United States Senators are Jack Reed (D) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D). Rhode Island's two United States Congressmen are Patrick J. Kennedy (D-1) and Jim Langevin (D-2). See congressional districts map.

Rhode Island is one of a few states that does not have an official Governor's residence. See List of Rhode Island Governors.

The state legislature is the Rhode Island General Assembly, consisting of the 75-member House of Representatives and the 38-member Senate. Both houses of the bicameral body are currently dominated by the Democratic Party.

Because Rhode Island's population barely crosses the threshold for additional votes in both the federal House and electoral college, it is well represented relative to its population, with the eighth-highest number of electoral votes and second-highest number of House Representatives per resident.

Federally, Rhode Island is one of the most reliably Democratic states during presidential elections, regularly giving the Democratic nominees one of their best showings. In 1980, Rhode Island was one of only 6 states to vote against Ronald Reagan. Reagan did carry Rhode Island in his 49-state victory in 1984, but the state was the second weakest of the states Reagan won. Rhode Island was the Democrats' leading state in 1988 and 2000, and second-best in 1996 and 2004. The state was devoted to Republicans until 1908, but has only strayed from the Democrats 7 times in the 24 elections that have followed. In 2004, Rhode Island gave John Kerry more than a 20-percentage-point margin of victory (the third-highest of any state), with 59.4% of its vote. All but three of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns voted for the Democratic candidate. The only exceptions were East Greenwich, West Greenwich and Scituate. In 2008, Rhode Island gave Barack Obama a 29-percentage-point margin of victory (the third-highest of any state), with 64% of its vote. All of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns voted for the Democratic candidate, except for Scituate.

Rhode Island has abolished capital punishment, making it one of 15 states that have done so. Rhode Island abolished the death penalty very early, just after Michigan (the first state to abolish it), and carried out its last execution in the 1840s. As of November 2009 Rhode Island is no longer one of two states in which prostitution is legal, provided it took place indoors. In a 2009 study Rhode Island was listed as the 9th safest state in the country.

Rhode Island has some of the highest taxes in the country, particularly its property taxes, ranking seventh in local and state taxes, and sixth in real estate taxes.

Rhode Island is the third state in the United States to pass legislation to allow the use of medical marijuana.

Further information: Political party strength in Rhode Island

Demographics

Main article: Famous people from Rhode Island

Popular culture

Main article: Rhode Island in popular culture

The Farrelly brothers and Seth MacFarlane depict Rhode Island in popular culture, often making comedic parodies of the state. MacFarlane's television series Family Guy is based in a fictional Rhode Island city named Quahog, and notable local events and celebrities are regularly lampooned.

The movie High Society , starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra, was set in Newport, Rhode Island.

The film adaptation of The Great Gatsby from 1974 was also filmed in Newport.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and John F. Kennedy were married at St. Mary's church in Newport, RI. Their reception was held at Hammersmith Farm, the Bouvier summer home in Newport.

Cartoonist Don Bousquet, a state icon, has made a career out of Rhode Island culture, drawing Rhode Island-themed gags in the Providence Journal and Yankee magazine. These cartoons have been reprinted in the Quahog series of paperbacks ( I Brake for Quahogs , Beware of the Quahog and The Quahog Walks Among Us .) Bousquet has also collaborated with humorist and Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin on two books: The Rhode Island Dictionary and The Rhode Island Handbook .

Writer David Lafleche has written two books based in the semi-fictitious city of Thundermist: Thundermist 04167 and A Week Without Sunshine . ("Thundermist" is accepted as a secondary name of Woonsocket.)

It is believed that the ghost of macabre writer Edgar Allan Poe haunts Benefit Street in the historic College Hill area of Providence, as he looks in a store window for the one woman he loved who worked there.

The 1998 film, Meet Joe Black was filmed at Aldrich Mansion in the Warwick Neck area of Warwick, RI.

Famous firsts in Rhode Island

• Rhode Island enacted the first law prohibiting slavery in North America on May 18, 1652.
• Slater Mill in Pawtucket was the first commercially successful cotton-spinning mill with a fully mechanized power system in America and was the birth place of the Industrial Revolution in the US.
• The oldest Fourth of July Parade in the country is still held annually in Bristol, Rhode Island.
• The first Baptist Church in America was founded in Providence in 1638.
• Ann Smith Franklin of the Newport Mercury was the first woman newspaper editor in America (August 22, 1762). She was the editor of "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, Rhode Island.
• Touro Synagogue, the first synagogue in America, was founded in Newport in 1763. Other sources say the first synagogue was the Mill Street, now South William Street, Synagogue in New York City, built by the Shearith Israel congregation in 1729 (or 1730), having earlier met in rented quarters, making Touro Synagogue the second-oldest in the United States.
• The first armed act of rebellion in America against the British Crown was the boarding and burning of the Revenue Schooner Gaspee in Narragansett Bay on June 10, 1772.
• The idea of a Continental Congress was first proposed at a town meeting in Providence on May 17, 1774. Rhode Island elected the first delegates (Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward) to the Continental Congress on June 15, 1774.
• The Rhode Island General Assembly created the first standing army in the colonies (1,500 men) on April 22, 1775.
• On June 15, 1775, the first naval engagement of the American Revolution occurred between a Colonial Sloop commanded by Capt. Abraham Whipple and an armed tender of the British Frigate Rose. The tender was chased aground and captured. Later in June, the General Assembly created the first American Navy when it commissioned the Sloops Katy and Washington, armed with 24 guns and commanded by Abraham Whipple, who was promoted to Commodore.
• Rhode Island was the first Colony to declare independence from Britain on May 4, 1776.
• Pelham Street in Newport was the first in America to be illuminated by gaslight in 1806.
• The first strike in the United States in which women participated occ
  
  

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