He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence"[8] which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers.

As a minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Williams had advocated the separation of church and state and condemned colonists' confiscation of land from the Indians.

[16] Over the following two decades, Providence Plantations grew into a self-sufficient agricultural and fishing settlement, though its lands were difficult to farm and its borders were disputed with Connecticut and Massachusetts.

[17] However, the Rhode Island General Assembly legalized African and Native American slavery throughout the colony in 1703, and Providence merchants' participation in the slave trade helped turn the city into a major port.

[13] This was the first act of armed resistance to British rule in America, predating the more famous Boston Tea Party by more than a year.

[13] The city's industries attracted many immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, England, Italy, Portugal, Cape Verde, and French Canada.

[28] Local politics split over slavery during the American Civil War, as many had ties to Southern cotton and the slave trade.

Despite ambivalence concerning the war, the number of military volunteers routinely exceeded quota, and the city's manufacturing proved invaluable to the Union.

[29] Providence was a major manufacturer of industrial products, from steam engines to precision tools to silverware, screws, and textiles.

[31] In 1922, it was affected by the 1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the city over an attempted wage cut and hours increase.

[44] Recent increases in real estate values have further exacerbated problems for those at marginal income levels, mirroring a statewide housing affordability crisis.

The area tends toward newer development, since much of it is land reclaimed in the 1970s from a mass of railroad tracks referred to colloquially as the "Chinese Wall".

[61] Other core buildings of the Providence skyline are the postmodern 50 Kennedy Plaza and late modern Textron Tower.

[93] African Americans constitute 16.1%[80] of the city's population, with their greatest concentrations found in Mount Hope and the Upper and Lower South Providence neighborhoods.

Of residents in poverty, the largest concentrations are found in the city's Olneyville, and Upper and Lower South Providence areas.

[104] As the capital of Rhode Island, the city's economy additionally consists of government services, with approximately 70,000 jobs.

[104] Prominent companies headquartered in Providence include Fortune 500 Textron, an advanced technologies industrial conglomerate; United Natural Foods, a distributor of natural and organic foods; Fortune 1000 Nortek Incorporated; Gilbane, a construction and real estate company.

Other companies with headquarters in the city include Citizens Bank,[105] Virgin Pulse, Ørsted US Offshore Wind, and Providence Equity.

[110] During the summer months, the city regularly hosts WaterFire, an environmental art installation that consists of about 100 bonfires which blaze just above the surface of the three rivers that pass through the middle of Downtown Providence.

[122] The city is the home of the Tony Award-winning theater group Trinity Repertory Company, the Providence Black Repertory Company, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra,[123] as well as groups such as The American Band, once associated with noted American composer David Wallis Reeves.

Prospect Terrace Park features expansive views of the downtown area, as well as a 15-foot tall granite statue of Roger Williams gazing over the city.

[132] The Westminster Arcade is the oldest enclosed shopping center in the U.S.[133][134] The Rhode Island School of Design Museum contains the 20th-largest collection in the United States.

Formed in 2004, it currently has four teams: the Providence Mob Squad, the Sakonnet River Roller Rats, the Old Money Honeys, and the Rhode Island Riveters.

[155] Providence uses a strong-mayor form of government in which the city council acts as a check against the power of the executive branch, the mayor.

[166] Providence is the center of Southern New England's broadcasting market, which also encompasses Bristol County, Massachusetts, which includes the cities of Fall River and New Bedford.

The city began the long-term project Iway in 2007 to move I-195 for safety reasons, to free up land, and to reunify the Jewelry District with Downtown Providence, which had been separated by the highway.

Of particular note is the East Side Trolley Tunnel running under College Hill, whose use is reserved for RIPTA buses.

[186] In 2017, the city signed a $400,000 contract with a bicycle sharing company, Jump, to introduce Providence's first program of its kind, supported by local hospitals and RIPTA.

The building was dedicated in 2002 by former Mayor Vincent Cianci Jr.[198] Providence Police Department operated on a $85.6 million budget in 2020 employing 453 officers.

[199] Providence has four sister cities:[200] Not far from that bridge [over the Blackstone] in a little cove is the famous "Slate Rock", on which it is said that Roger Williams first landed after his tedious and painful flight from the persecutions of his Massachusetts brethren.