Rhode Island. Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area, the seventh least populous, and the second most densely populated. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is the state capital and most populous city in Rhode Island. On May 4, 1776, the Colony of Rhode Island was the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and it was the fourth among the newly independent states to ratify the Articles of Confederation on February 9, 1778. The state boycotted the 1787 convention which drew up the United States Constitution and initially refused to ratify it; it was the last of the original 13 states to do so on May 29, 1790. Rhode Island's official nickname is The Ocean State, a reference to the large bays and inlets that amount to about 14 percent of its total area. Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is located on the mainland of the United States. Its official name is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is derived from the merger of four Colonial settlements. The settlements of Newport and Portsmouth were situated on what is commonly called Aquidneck Island today, but it was called Rhode Island in Colonial times. Providence Plantation was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the area now known as the city of Providence. This was adjoined by the settlement of Warwick; hence the plural Providence Plantations. It is unclear how the island came to be named Rhode Island, but two historical events may have been of influence: Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay in 1524 which he likened to the island of Rhodes. Subsequent European explorers were unable to precisely identify the island that Verrazzano had named, but the Pilgrims who later colonized the area assumed that it was this island. Adriaen Block passed by the island during his expeditions in the 1610s, and he described it in a 1625 account of his travels as an island of reddish appearance, which was een rodlich Eylande in 17th-century Dutch, and one popular notion is that this Dutch phrase might have influenced the name Rhode Island. The earliest documented use of the name Rhode Island for Aquidneck was in 1637 by Roger Williams. The name was officially applied to the island in 1644 with these words: Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Isle of Rodes or Rhode-Island. The name Isle of Rodes is used in a legal document as late as 1646. Dutch maps as early as 1659 call the island Red Island. Roger Williams was a theologian who was forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, seeking religious and political tolerance. He and others founded Providence Plantation as a free proprietary colony. Providence referred to the concept of divine providence, and plantation was an English term for a colony. However, in recent years, the word plantation in the state's name became a contested issue, and the Rhode Island General Assembly voted on June 25, 2009 to hold a general referendum determining whether and Providence Plantations would be dropped from the official name. Advocates for excising plantation claimed that the word symbolized an alleged legacy of disenfranchisement for many Rhode Islanders, as well as the proliferation of slavery in the colonies and in the post-colonial United States. Advocates for retaining the name argued that plantation was simply an archaic synonym for colony and bore no relation to slavery. The referendum election was held on November 2, 2010, and the people voted overwhelmingly to retain the entire original name. Main article: History of Rhode Island Main article: Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations In 1636, Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, and he settled at the top of Narragansett Bay on land sold or given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus.