Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations people. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th state and the last of the former colonies to ratify the Constitution. Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It was an English colony from 1636 until the American Revolution in 1776, when it became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known simply as Rhode Island). The land that became the English colony was first home to the Narragansett Indians,
Ross Island Penal Colony residence was located at the highest point on the island. The penal colony became infamous as "Kalapani" or "black water" for the brutalities inflicted by the British authorities on the political prisoners from India, and most of whom had died by 1860 due to illness and torture suffered during the initial stages of the clearance of the forest to establish the colony. In later years the colony experimented for a short time with civilizing the indigenous people of Andamans. The penal colony was used as an experimental station for various methods of torture and medical tests. During the Second World