Rhode Island became America’s most rebellious colony! This 8-minute video posted on May 4, 2025 covers Roger Williams’ radical vision of religious freedom; why Rhode Island was the first to declare independence; America’s industrial revolution birthplace; the Gilded Age mansions and mobster hideouts; and how such a small state had such massive influence.

Roger Williams stepped ashore at the edge of Narragansett Bay and called the place Providence, a gift he believed from divine mercy. It became a haven for those the world refused like Ann Hutchinson, William Coddington, and other seekers of truth.

Slavery, though never formally legalized quietly became the backbone of its economy though Rhode Island became the first colony to declare slavery abolished in 1652.

The rebellious towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport stood as one a colony born not of conquest but of conviction. Over 23,000 Rhode Islanders took up arms, and nearly 1,700 never returned their blood binding the small state to the immense cost of freedom while its factories roared with the production of war, churning out weapons and uniforms while its harbors received Lafayette’s troops from France to help win the Revolutionary War.