Interesting Facts about Rhode Island

• The smallest state has the longest official name, the "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
• Gentlemanly Indian men would serenade an Indian woman. If interested, she would throw out her moccasin, then come out for an engagement walk. Less honorable braves sometimes knocked their prospective brides unconscious and carried them off.
• Samuel Gorton fled to Rhode Island after he was banished from Massachusetts for defending his maid, who had been punished for smiling in church.
• Many protests against the British tax on tea were made in Rhode Island. One man dashed around Providence crossing out the word "tea" on every sign he found.
• A lover of good jokes, Mrs. William Astor once invited Newport society to meet the Prince del Drago, who turned out to be a tiny monkey resplendent in a full dress suit.