Raimondo to sign executive order removing ‘Providence Plantations’ from official documents

WPRI, CBS 12, Providence Plantations ^ | Jun 22, 2020 09:50 AM EDT | Melanie DaSilva

[Olog-hai]

The smallest state in the country has the longest name, and it’s not sitting well with some.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced plans to sign an executive order Monday afternoon to remove the phrase “Providence Plantations” from all gubernatorial orders and citations, executive agency websites, official correspondence, and state employee pay stubs.

“Our work to dismantle systemic racism in Rhode Island did not start today and it will not end today, but we can rise together and make meaningful progress toward racial equity now,” Raimondo said.

Officially, Rhode Island was established as “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” when it declared statehood in 1790. Now, those against the official state name say the plantations reference evokes the legacy of slavery.

“Rhode Island was founded on the principles of acceptance and tolerance, and our state’s name, and actions, should reflect those values,” Raimondo continued. “The steps I am announcing today are just the beginning, and I am fully committed to continuing to work alongside the community in stamping out individual and institutional racism in our state.”

Changing the name would require a constitutional amendment and Raimondo suggested a referendum should go before voters in November. …

[Reily]

Think of all the oppression that went on in the cotton fields of Rhode Island.

[JBW1949]

See post #37...

[eyedigress]

sorry

[JBW1949]

...Dude....

[mass55th]

Next they’ll be renaming Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass.

[JBW1949]

LOL...Me too....

[DannyTN]

Change it to farms.

Then let’s watch them boycott farms.

[eyedigress]

:^)

[This I Wonder32460]

Stupidity rules the day. What’s next the word farm?

[Sirius Lee]

And don't forget to ban plantains! The fruit sounds too much like plantation. All, they change color as they ripen which is raciss.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

WTH??? Was RI even a slave state? I swear!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I think I’ll call it that from now on.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Well, our overlords paved the way for that one with their COVID-19 blah-de-blah gubernatorial decrees.

[The Public Eye]

Greetings from Rhode Island. We’re so small not too many people know anything about us. The official name of the state is “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” All those letters and words. We were founded about 270 years ago by a bunch of Protestant zealots who couldn’t get along with the fine folks in Massachusetts. Roger Williams being one of them. Our first Governor while being a Baptist minister. (Take that for separation of church and state.)
We are named as we are because historically Newport on Rhode Island was the capital and the hub of activity. Providence and the surrounding communities were more rural. While many of the movers and shakers back in the day, did profit from slavery via the triangle trade, wide spread abusive slavery was not practiced in those “plantations” now called towns, like Warwick or Cranston.
Governor Raimondo is a control freak mini despot who has been enjoying her moment in the sun with here covid 19 shutdown. She has no sense of Rhode Island history, nor does she care. The white liberals around here bring out this name change every time they want to pander for the black vote.

[Verginius Rufus]

Rhode Island achieved statehood in 1776 when the Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain, not in 1790 when it ratified the Constitution. It was the last of the 13 states to accept the Constitution, more than a year after Washington took office as the first President (and by a 34-32 vote). The Constitution refers to the state as Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in Article I, Section 1.

Why not object to the "Rhode" part because it sounds too much like Cecil Rhodes?

[jmcenanly]

The people who are doing the complaining don’t do much reading.

[Red Badger]

Cotton, cotton picking, corn bread, hush puppies, fried chicken, pancakes and chitlins.................

[jmcenanly]

This whole business is just bananas.

[ladyjane]

Roger Williams was a Puritan theologian and linguist who founded Providence Plantations in 1636 on land given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus. He was exiled under religious persecution from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; he and his fellow settlers agreed on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule “in civil things,” with liberty of conscience on spiritual matters. He named the settlement Providence Plantation, believing that God had brought them there. (The term “plantation” was used in the 17th century as a synonym for “settlement” or “colony.”)[1]Williams named the islands in the Narragansett Bay after Christian virtues: Patience, Prudence, and Hope Islands.[2]

[raccoonradio]

Don’t think RI is a Commonwealth

Mass.
Virginia
Pennsylvania
Kentucky
Puerto Rico
and maybe 1 more