The state’s official name is “the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” and the “Providence Plantations” portion has come under scrutiny in the aftermath of protests following the death of George Floyd.
In the meantime, Rhode Island will cease using the state’s full name in executive orders and on the state’s official websites and official government documents.
Rhode Island’s official name includes “Providence Plantations” after the name of a settlement founded in 1636 by Roger Williams that now includes the state’s capital city, according to the state government’s website Although Rhode Island passed a law in 1652 banning African slavery, it was never enforced and the state later “played a leading role in the transatlantic slave trade,” according to the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University in Providence.
Plantations in the Deep South owned by wealthy white landowners often tasked enslaved black Americans to do the fieldwork, 60% of whom picked cotton, according to the Understanding Slavery Initiative The Rhode Island state Senate proposed a resolution on June 17 to change the state’s official name as well.
A 2010 vote on the same issue came back overwhelmingly against changing the name, with 78% of voters opting to retain the Providence Plantations portion, according to The Providence Journal.
