Rhode Island was the last of the original 13 U.S. states to ratify the Constitution, doing so on May 29, 1790.
Article VII required ratification by conventions in nine states for the Constitution to take effect. New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788, but several states still had not approved the document. Rhode Island remained especially skeptical of a stronger federal government and did not send delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
Rhode Island’s ratifying convention finally approved the Constitution by a narrow vote of 34–32. Its decision completed the original states’ ratification sequence nearly three years after Delaware became the first state to approve the document. Rhode Island’s late action is sometimes confused with North Carolina’s, which was the second-to-last original state to ratify, in November 1789.