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July 3, 2007

Small state, big role in our country's independence

From its founding, Rhode Island has had a reputation for headstrong, buck-the-trend political leaders.

As we approach the Fourth of July, marking the day the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, here are a few historical reminders of our role, courtesy of the state Legislature's Web site:

- On May 17, 1774, after parliamentary passage of the Coercive Acts (Americans called them "Intolerable"), the Providence Town Meeting became the first governmental assemblage to issue a call for a general congress of colonies to resist British policy.

- On June 15, 1774, the General Assembly made the colony the first to appoint delegates -- Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward -- to the anticipated Continental Congress.

-- In April 1775, a week after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the colonial legislature authorized raising a 1,500-man ''army of observation'' with Nathanael Greene as its commander.

- On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

- On July 4, 1776, Rhode Islanders' Hopkins and William Ellery joined their fellow delegates in signing the Declaration of Independence. (Where was Ward? He contracted smallpox while at the congress and died before he could sign the document.)

-- On July 18, 1776, the Assembly ratified the Declaration of Independence.

More about Rhode Island's revolutionary history here ...

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 10:52 AM | Permalink

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