Eliminate Rhode Island

[kichinichini]

Sometime after the founding or Providence Plantation by Roger Williams and before is accession as a state to the United States, what's the easiest way to eliminate Rhode Island by absorbing it into some other entity?

 

[Sigma7]

Connecticut claimed Narragansett Bay as it's eastern border until 1728.

Find a way to make that claim stick and Connecticut ends up with two more counties and a big outlet to the Atlantic.

 

[kichinichini]

Connecticut claimed Narragansett Bay as it's eastern border until 1728.

Find a way to make that claim stick and Connecticut ends up with two more counties and a big outlet to the Atlantic.

But given Providence Plantations and Newport are on the other side of the bay, do those just get folded into Massachusetts?

 

[Sigma7]

But given Providence Plantations and Newport are on the other side of the bay, do those just get folded into Massachusetts?

Pretty much. The bulk of Rhode Island is west of Narragansett Bay, the remaining land couldn't be a separate colony, so it'd make sense for Mass. to absorb it.

 

[Dan1988]

But given Providence Plantations and Newport are on the other side of the bay, do those just get folded into Massachusetts?

Yes. No matter what CT's claims are, most likely RI would be folded into Massachusetts - but probably not before becoming part of the Plymouth Colony first (if the Plymouth Colony still merges into the Massachusetts Bay Colony as in OTL).

 

[Just a Rube]

EdT's The Bloody Man timeline had Plymouth, Massachusetts and Sayebrooke (an OTL failed early settlement in Connecticut) dividing it up and kicking out Roger Williams and the other settlers after getting fed up with his dangerously liberal ideas.

 

[Meshakhad]

Drop a meteor on it. No more Rhode Island.

 

[NolanFoster]

Lose it in the couch

 

[Urcea]

Have Rhode Island and Plymouth join (rather than the latter being added to Massachusetts) to create the Narragansett Bay Colony.

 

[Alon]

Massachusetts, as noted by several people above, is a merger of two colonies, centered on Boston and Plymouth. The merger could have also included Providence, provided the religious question could resolve itself.

Alternatively you could also zap Roger Williams one way or another.

 

[kichinichini]

Massachusetts, as noted by several people above, is a merger of two colonies, centered on Boston and Plymouth. The merger could have also included Providence, provided the religious question could resolve itself.

Alternatively you could also zap Roger Williams one way or another.

Thanks all for reminding me about the timeline of the colonial mergers.

How dependent was early Rhode Island on Roger Williams' philosophy or personality?

 

[Umbric Man]

Thanks all for reminding me about the timeline of the colonial mergers.

How dependent was early Rhode Island on Roger Williams' philosophy or personality?

It was somewhat heavily, IMO. Rhode Island tried to do its own thing as far as New England went in introducing freedom of religion and taking in all the rejected people from other provinces. Half of its population by 1660 was Quaker if I remember right.

Another interesting legacy of that was it being the last state to sign the Constitution due to doing its own thing.

 

[Salamander]

Destroy as a political-geographical construct or physically?

.

 

[Lyly]

Rhode Island tried to do its own thing as far as New England went in introducing freedom of religion and taking in all the rejected people from other provinces. Half of its population by 1660 was Quaker if I remember right.

Another interesting legacy of that was it being the last state to sign the Constitution due to doing its own thing.

"Rogue Island", as it was known.

 

[Alias]

What did Rhode Island ever do to you?