2155: Rhode Island Just Changed its Name Nov 8, 2020

This week has seen much political change in the USA, but what is getting less publicity perhaps is that Rhode Island just changed its official name. Up until now, it was known as "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". During the British colonial period, Rhode Island only referred to one island, now called Aquidneck Island and the Providence Plantation was the remaining land, not ulike how Maine is named for the mainland, since most people lived on the coastal islands there. Back in those times, plantations related to farms, certainly, but was another word for colony and in this case had nothing to do with slavery. The fact is, however, that enough people felt uncomfortable with the word through unfortunate historical connotations that it was changed in the election.