Rhode Island moves to change official name over slavery ties
Governor’s order would shorten state’s full name of ‘The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations’ to just ‘Rhode Island’
The name has no slavery ties.
No more than the name of the Niger River has ties to the racial epithet.
Or Niger the country, or Nigeria the country, through both of which the river passes.
In the 17th century, the English used "plantation" to mean "colony".
But, hey, the mob's the mob and this Democratic governor is desperate to virtue-signal.
And, anyway, "colony" is a bad word to use in a name, too, eh?
Rhode Island
Providence Plantations
Plymouth Plantation
See the Guardian article.
The change requires action by the RI legislature.
If it's made contingent on a popular vote of confirmation it possibly won't happen.
It was tried once before and the voters opposed the change by 75%.
It is predictable that Republicans will want to make it so contingent while Democrats will oppose that.
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