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The history of Rhode Island is truly remarkable. The Story of Rhode Island is my humble attempt to tell you some of the stories about the people, places, and events that have made Rhode Island the state it is today.
To learn more about the show visit the Story of Rhode Island Podcast website at https://www.storyofrhodeisland.com/
[HOOK]
In 1790, the United States of America threatened to invade one of its own states.
Not a foreign enemy. Not a rebellious territory. A state. A founding member of the republic that had just finished fighting a revolution against exactly that kind of force.
The leaders of America were so fed up with this state that they threatened to begin treating it as a foreign nation — killing the trade relationships it so heavily depended on. And some went even further — floating the idea of sending troops in to carve it up and divide its land between its neighbors.
The state they were threatening was Rhode Island, a radical little society whose commitment to its ideals frequently put it at odds with those around it.
But this time was unlike any other — never before had Rhode Island found itself in a standoff of this magnitude.
And what might be the most surprising part of this entire story is who was behind it.
Because it wasn’t who you’d expect. It wasn’t generals or wealthy merchants. It wasn’t the kind of men whose names end up on monuments or in history books.
It was farmers. Men who had been hit by hard times. And who put up a fight that pushed America to the brink of turning on one of its own.
BREAK - THE FARMERS
Before these Rhode Island farmers were defying a nation, they were battling an economic downturn.
By the time the Revolutionary War ended, South County’s farming community — once among the most prosperous in all of colonial America — was in serious decline.
Newport, the commercial engine they depended on to export their goods, had declined sharply during the war, significantly reducing their profits from trade. They also lost access to the British markets in the West Indies, a region most of their surplus goods had been sold to for generations. And while their incomes were shrinking, their expenses were rising. When the war ended, the bills to fund the epic conflict came due. And the income deprived farmers knew they’d never be able to come up with the hard money that was needed to pay those debts, most of which was owed to the wealthy merchant creditors in Providence and Newport.
So the farmers organized.
Mainly driven by a cohort in south county, they made their concerns known and united behind Jonathan Hazard, a well-connected political operator who gave their movement shape and direction. Then, in the spring of 1786 they swept into power under the banner of the Country Party. Almost instantly they pushed through a paper money policy that had the general assembly issue money and lend it to farmers at accessible rates so they could use it to pay their debts and taxes.
The wealthy creditors hated it. Paper currency depreciated, which meant they got paid back in dollars worth less than the ones they’d lent out. But the farmers didn’t care what the creditors thought. They had the votes. And in Rhode Island’s highly democratic society that’s what mattered.
As time passed, it became clear that the plan was working. Rhode Island, a place many thought was reckless for implementing such an aggressive economic policy, began paying off its debt at a rapid rate. For a moment, it looked like the farmers had pulled it off.
But then the United States Constitution arrived in 1787. And with it, came Article I, Section 10, which explicitly prohibited states from issuing paper money.
To the Rhode Island farmers, that wasn’t an abstract political disagreement. That was a direct attack on the policy that had saved them. Everything they had built, every protection they had fought for, would be gone and they would be handed back to the hard-money creditors they had just escaped.
And so rather than accepting their fate, they pushed back, and what began was an act of defiance that would pit Rhode Island against the rest of the nation.
BREAK - THE STANDOFF
Rhode Island’s opposition to the Constitution started before it was even created.
When leading American statesmen began meeting in Philadelphia to discuss devising a new, more powerful government to replace the Articles of Confederation, Rhode Island refused to attend, the only state to take such a stance. To them, The Articles of Confederation was exactly the type of federal government they wanted - one that had little to no power and could hardly even be called a government at all. They saw no reason to support any movement that would disrupt the autonomy it gave them.
And it wasn't just the farmers who felt that way. Many Rhode Islanders, already naturally distrustful of centralized authority, feared that a more powerful central government — one they had a very small voice in — would now be able to impose the same kind of trade restrictions and import duties that the British Empire once had. On top of that, the state's Quaker community opposed ratifying a constitution that explicitly condoned the slave trade.
And that distaste for the new government grew even more intense when it was completed in September of 1787 and the Rhode Island farmers realized it would put an end to the paper money policy that meant so much to them.
But while Rhode Island was putting up its defenses, the rest of the nation was moving in a different direction.
Throughout 1787 and 1788, states elected representatives for ratifying conventions to discuss whether or not they approved of the new government - a procedure every state took part in except, you guessed it, Rhode Island. With their general assembly still controlled by the Country Party and the delegates of that party still answering to the farmers who elected them, there was no chance of such a convention being held. They voted down calling a ratifying convention not once, not twice, but seven times.
And while Rhode Island refused to even discuss the constitution, others were adopting it.
It started with Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey ratifying the Constitution in 1787 And was Followed by Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York in 1788.
By 1789, it was just North Carolina and Rhode Island who had yet to ratify the constitution. But unlike North Carolina who was at least having ratifying conventions, Rhode Island was stonewalling it entirely.
Then, Rhode Island officially ran out of company in November of 1789 when North Carolina joined the new United States of America. And just like that tiny state of Rhode Island stood alone.
By the end of the year, it was 12 states vs 1 one, nearly 4 million people vs. fewer than 70,000, and a group of Founding Fathers whose name would go down in history vs. a collection of stubborn farmers you’ve never heard of.
What emerged was the type of peer pressure that would make even the most steadfast individual break and the most determined realize that their fight was hopeless.
But still the farmers held their ground.
Not surprisingly, the leaders of America were not pleased. Like a thorn in their side they quickly grew tired of Rhode Island’s obstinate ways and decided it was time to make their feelings known.
It started in November of 1789 during George Washington’s tour of New England to celebrate his presidency. While in the region he visited every state but Rhode Island, making it clear that Rhode Island was not one of them.
But Rhode Island had a long history of this type of treatment. Founded by religious outcasts shunned by other nations and colonies, they were used to being treated as outsiders. What difference did it make if they were political or religious outcasts?
And so, the Country party and the General Assembly they controlled remained unfazed.
Then, in February of 1790, John Adams gave it a go.
He told Rhode Island that if they didn’t ratify the Constitution then Congress would have no choice but to treat them as a foreign nation and extend all laws to them as such.
But still the farmers refused to budge.
Growing more furious with each passing week, some constitutional advocates suggested that they should just carve up the state into two and divide it amongst Massachusetts and Connecticut. For those familiar with 17th century Rhode Island history, you know why such a threat could be so chilling.
And yet, once again, nothing from the farmers.
But what the farmers didn’t know was that cracks were beginning to emerge in Rhode Island’s defiance, cracks that would come from some of the places they least expected and go on to topple the resistance they fought so hard to defend.
BREAK - THE BREAKING POINT
Some of the fractures in the Country Party's resistance were less surprising than others. Once the merchants of coastal towns like Newport and Providence realized the harsh impact the movement could have on their economic prospects they quickly began making it known that they were ready for ratification. But that wasn't all that shocking — the state's merchants were known to prioritize economics over pretty much anything.
What did shock the farmers, what really rattled them to their core, were the defections that emerged in early 1790. Because these came from some of their very own.
It started with Jonathan Hazard, the man they considered their fearless leader and who had initiated the paper money policy in 1786. As the threats of American leaders grew more dire every month, Hazard looked at the landscape and made a calculation. By 1790, Rhode Island's war debt was paid. The paper money had done its job. The crisis that made the Constitution's ban an existential threat had quietly resolved itself. And so he partnered with Governor John Collins, another member of the Country Party, and pushed for a ratifying convention — both knowing very well that it would cost them their political careers.
After some hard fought political maneuvering, part of which consisted of Governor Collins breaking a tied vote in the general assembly, the Rhode Island government finally passed a resolution to call a constitutional convention. Nearly two and a half years after the Constitution was created, Rhode Island was finally discussing ratifying it for the very first time.
But discussing wasn't deciding.
Feeling betrayed by the very men they had put into power, leaders who were supposed to stand up for their interests, the farmers continued their resistance.
And when it came time for the ratifying convention, the delegates felt the full weight of that resistance. They gathered in this very building — what is today known as the Kingston Free Library. Back then the village was called Little Rest, and it was the heart of the Country Party movement. All around it were farms owned by the movement's most devoted members, men who had organized a movement from nothing, taken control of Rhode Island's government, and held off the entire United States for two and a half years. Convincing them to surrender would be a steep and rocky uphill battle.
And so it was. Throughout the first six days of March 1790, fiery debates consumed the convention. Representation, taxation, the slave trade, amendments, the Bill of Rights — nothing was settled easily. And the entire time, the weight of the state’s merchant community and an entire nation was pressing down on them - impatiently waiting for Rhode Island to finally end this thing once and for all.
But that didn’t happen.
By the end of the convention, those pushing for ratification realized they didn’t have the votes they needed and were forced to adjourn, deciding to meet again in Newport in May.
And so yet again, the farmers held their ground.
In the weeks that followed, Constitutional advocates entered a state of frenzy. They went town to town, village to village, main street to main street doing everything they could to turn the tide before the next convention. Meanwhile the threats that had once been words became actions. In May of 1790 the Senate passed a bill to prohibit all trade between Rhode Island and the United States entirely — a move that would decimate the Rhode Island economy. Then, in that same month, the merchants of Providence, Bristol, and Newport threatened to secede from Rhode Island entirely and enter the union on their own terms.
The farmers were no longer just fighting America. They were fighting their own state.
But eventually, the second ratifying convention arrived and the time for persuasion was over. It was time for Rhode Island to make a decision once and for all.
The tension felt by the delegates as they made their way up Queen Anne’s Square - an area now known as Washington Square- and towards the Newport colony house must have been overwhelming. Each one of those men knew what was at stake — not just for the farmers of South County but for Rhode Islanders throughout the state. Those who had spent years opposing ratification sat across from those who had spent weeks desperately trying to secure it. To make it worse, nobody knew which way the vote would go. Anxious to know the outcome, every minute must have felt like an eternity to the delegates in that building.
But eventually, the votes were cast and the results were in. And the outcome was just as close as they imagined. With a vote of thirty-four to thirty-two, Rhode Island voted in favor of ratifying the constitution.
And just like that it was over. After two and a half years of defiance, seven rejected conventions, threats of invasion, economic strangulation, and their own cities threatening to abandon them — the game was finally up.
But what they built — and what it says about 18th century Rhode Island — is a story that still needs to be told.
BREAK - CLOSING
The United States Constitution was good for America. History has largely settled that question. The stronger central government it created — the one that could tax, regulate commerce, and hold the nation together — built the foundation for everything that followed. The anti-federalists who opposed it, passionate and principled as many of them were, were on the wrong side of that outcome.
But here's what gets lost in that tidy conclusion.
Although we remember the anti-federalists as the intellectual opposition to the Constitution, which for the most part it was, what gets missed is the fact that the most devoted part of that movement weren't wealthy statesmen. They were farmers - men who had watched a prosperous world shrink around them and weren’t willing to let it shrink any further. And these were the men who took the anti-federalist cause further than anyone else in America was willing to take it. Further than the statesmen. Further than the philosophers. Further than every other state that eventually fell in line. They held out longer, fought harder, and surrendered only when there was nothing left to surrender to.
But unfortunately, that story has largely been forgotten. And that's a shame. Because it says something important about what made 18th century Rhode Island unique.
It was a place so committed to the idea that the people should govern themselves that it built an entire society around it. A place where farmers could take on merchants, where the middling majority could overrule the wealthy minority, where the ballot box meant something real. Rhode Island wasn't perfect. But it was, for its time, unlike anything else on earth.
And the farmers of South County were its purest expression. They fought the way Rhode Island had always fought — not because they were certain they would win, but because they believed they had the right to try.
The Constitution passed. America moved on. And the farmers of South County faded from history.
But they were here. And for two and a half years, they made the whole country feel it.