Marilyn Plumlee, age 9, of Wichita, Kansas,

How did Rhode Island get its name?

You might expect a state with such a name to be an island, Of courses Rhode Island is not an island state, It nestles around beautiful Narragansett Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. In this bay are several sizeable islands. One of them can give you a clue to the name of the smallest of our states. It is named Aquindeck Island or Rhode Island. This is the island that gave its name to the whole state of Rhode Island.

We are not certain how the island itself came to be named. Someone may have originally named it with the Greek word for roses, In this case it would be the Isle of Roses, On the other hand, it may have been Roode Eylandt, meaning Red Island, by the Dutch. The shoreline of they low lying island is of reddish clay, so this seems reasonable,

The little state was first settled in 1636 by Roger Williams a great believer in freedom,. He named his small colony Providence, which is now the name of Rhode Island's principle city. The settlement was granted a charter by the British Parliament as the Providence Plantations, Later, the little state was the first rebel against the injustice  of British government,