FREE: Used US #777 1936 3¢ Rhode Island Tercentenary

The listing, Used US #777 1936 3¢ Rhode Island Tercentenary has ended.

US #777 1936 3¢ Rhode Island Tercentenary - Used

Issue Date: May 4, 1936

The smallest state in the Union, Rhode Island is also the most densely populated. In 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain. In 1790, it became the last of the 13 original states to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
When the first Europeans arrived, Algonquian Indians lived in the area that is now Rhode Island. A Portuguese navigator, Miguel de Cortereal, may have reached the Rhode Island coast as early as 1511. Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian explorer working for France, reached Narragansett Bay in 1524. Verrazzano may have given Rhode Island its name, after the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea.

A minister, Roger Williams, established the first permanent white settlement at Providence in 1636. Williams was forced to leave Massachusetts due to his demands for greater religious freedom. He bought land for the settlement from Canonicus and Miantonomo, two Algonquian Indian chiefs.

Other colonists seeking religious and political freedom also came to Rhode Island. In 1638, colonists from Massachusetts founded Pocasset on Aquidneck Island (now Rhode Island). This settlement soon split. Some of the group, led by William Coddington and John Clarke, moved south and formed Newport in 1639. Those who remained in Pocasset were led by Anne Hutchinson - they changed the settlement’s name to Portsmouth. In 1643, a group of settlers led by Samuel Gorton and John Greene left Providence to form Warwick. These colonists believed true freedom was possible only through living under English law.