The Colonial Era
1663
“Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” July 15, 1663.
This 17th-century charter issued by Charles II would serve as Rhode Island’s fundamental document for nearly 200 years. At the time it was written, historian Scott Molloy has argued, it was the world’s most advanced constitution. The same provisions on suffrage that made it so liberal in 1663, however, excluded up to 60% of white males from voting by the 1840s.
