“No Baker’s dozen was her taste”: Rhode Island, Ratification, and Rhetoric in American Constitutional History

In 1787, Rhode Island refused to send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, becoming the only state to do so. From its early colonial beginnings, Rhode Island\u27s unique status gave its residents the opportunity to develop equally unique attitudes about the nature of government. These attitudes, however, also made the colony particularly susceptible to criticism from outside commentators. Over time, this criticism hardened Rhode Island\u27s individualist, self-reliant determination to resist outside control, which ultimately resulted in the refusal to send delegates to the Convention and later continued refusal to ratify the Constitution until 1790. As Rhode Island\u27s dissidence calcified, outside criticism also intensified, resulting in a dramatic debate over the nature of government, freedom, and even of good and evil