officially Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
State (pop., 2000: 1,048,319), northeastern U.S. One of the New England states and the smallest U.S. state, it covers 1,212 sq mi (3,139 sq km); its capital is Providence .
Rhode Island is bordered by Massachusetts on the north and east, and Connecticut on the west. The Rhode Island Sound on the south is the basis of the state's fishing industry. The original inhabitants of the area were Narragansett Indians. The first European settlement was in 1636 by Roger Williams and his followers, who were banished from Massachusetts; in 1663 King Charles II granted a charter to Williams. Though it never officially joined the New England colonies in King Philip's War , it suffered greatly when many settlements were burned. It was at the forefront of the fight against British customs laws that led to the American Revolution . An original state of the Union, in 1790 it was the 13th state to ratify the Constitution, agreeing only after the Bill of Rights was included. The state's original charter remained in effect until Dorr's Rebellion (see Thomas W. Dorr ) in 1842 led to extension of suffrage. The cotton-textile mill built by Samuel Slater in Pawtucket in 1790 initiated the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. Manufacturing is still important to the economy, and products include jewelry and silverware, textiles and clothing, and electrical machinery and electronics.