Ratification of the United States Constitution by Rhode Island

Rhode Island acquired a reputation for opposing a closer union with the other former British colonies that had formed the United States of America.

[1][2] It vetoed an act of the Congress of the Confederation which earned it a number of deprecatory nicknames, including "Rogue Island" and "the Perverse Sister".

[3] Nearly a dozen conventions that had been called in Rhode Island to ratify the constitution failed to do so, often by wide margins; in one instance, 92 percent of the delegates voted against ratification.

The Rhode Island General Assembly capitulated 11 days later and ratified the Constitution, before the proposed embargo could be acted on by the United States House of Representatives.

The ratification also contained a list of proposed amendments to the Constitution that Rhode Island wished to see taken up, such as abolition of the slave trade.

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States , a 1940 painting by Howard Chandler Christy depicting the 1787 event. No representatives from Rhode Island are shown in this painting, as the state refused to send a delegation.
Rhode Island state coat of arms
The Rhode Island General Assembly took 101 years to ratify the Constitution's Seventeenth Amendment.