Rhode Island was the first American colony to declare independence from Great Britain in 1776.
On May 4, Rhode Island's legislature formally renounced allegiance to King George III, nearly two months before the Continental Congress adopted the United States Declaration of Independence. The colony's action reflected its long-standing resistance to imperial control and its maritime conflict with Britain.
Rhode Island had already played an early role in the revolutionary crisis. In 1772, local men attacked the British customs schooner HMS Gaspee, an incident often described as one of the first acts of armed resistance leading toward the American Revolution. The colony also faced British naval pressure because Narragansett Bay was strategically important.
This distinction is easy to confuse with the national declaration. Rhode Island declared itself independent as a colony, while the Continental Congress later declared the united colonies independent as a collective political body. Rhode Island was also the last of the original 13 states to ratify the U.S. Constitution, doing so in 1790 after intense local opposition.