[BillyBoy]

The "Providence Plantations" thing certainly SOUNDS like kind of slavery terminology, but its like when they got their panties in a bunch over the word "niggardly" because it SOUNDS like an anti-black slur, when it reality the word just meant "cheapskate or miserly" and no connection to the anti-black slur aside from very similar spelling. I googled it, wondering if slavery was ever even in a thing in Rhode Island, give how far removed the state is from the antebellum culture of the deep south. A brief online search says Rhode Island had slavery during its colonial era, but very quickly abolished the slave trade in the revolutionary war era after it became an American state. Nevertheless, people were still allowed to keep the slaves they already had, and there was a small amount of slave owners despite repeated anti-slavery laws being passed. They only had four slaves left in the whole state by the 1840 census. Finally, in Rhode Island's 1843 constitution, slavery was permanently made illegal.

If the Governor is going to change the name of the state by Executive Order, she might as well go the full hog and rename it "State of Rhode & Narragansett Bay Islands", give that the vast majority of Rhode "Island" is on the U.S. MAINLAND and isn't a freakin' island.

Or better yet, take the suggestion from the Jim Carrey movie "Me, Myself & Irene" and rename it DISTRICT of Rhode Island, demoting those commies down to being a region within a much bigger state. They can have Massachusetts' Senators or something. ;-)

[BillyBoy]

>> 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.) <<

Wow. Very interesting backstory from an RI FReeper. Really ironic the state was "founded by a bunch of Protestant zealots who couldn’t get along", as I believe the current demographics show RI has the highest percentage of Catholics in all 50 states (mainly due to RI also having a huge percentage of its population with Italian ancestry, and of course many of those "Catholics" are non-practicing and secular)

Nevertheless, that would be one of the MANY reasons why the colonial era RI founders would appalled at what's currently going on in the state.

[Olog-hai]

Well, if “niggard” is such a problem, remember when “homophone” was mistaken for an anti-homosexual slur?