1788 Rhode Island Referendum on the U.S. Constitution

[A18]

County map:



Statewide Result
NAY, 2,708 — 91.95%
YEA, 237 — 8.05%

This referendum was held on March 24, 1788. Rhode Island's General Assembly had called for a popular vote on whether to ratify the proposed U.S. Constitution. The propriety of such a method was questioned (see U.S. Const., Article VII), and many Federalists boycotted the vote.

I hope to add these results to the Atlas database eventually, but since that's not possible right now and I'm eager to share the data, I decided to do this the old fashioned way. I apologize for the lack of a transparent background; unfortunately, I have only Microsoft Paint to work with, and it doesn't support such a feature. The map is saved in PNG format.

Here's the county data:

Bristol
NAY, 98 — 72.59%
YEA, 37 — 27.41%

Kent
NAY, 556  — 98.76%
YEA, 7 — 1.24%

Newport
NAY, 270 — 71.05%
YEA, 110 — 28.95%

Providence
NAY, 1,061 — 97.97%
YEA, 22 — 2.03%

Washington
NAY, 723 — 92.22%
YEA, 61 — 7.78%

Town data coming up...

EDIT: Added the statewide figures, which I had somehow managed to leave out.

[A18]

Complete data set:

BRISTOL
# Barrington:
#   9 to 34
# Bristol:
#   26 to 23
# Warren:
#   2 to 41
##
# Total of
# > 37 to 98
##

KENT
# Coventry:
#   0 to 180
# East Greenwich:
#   2 to 91
# Warwick:
#   3 to 140
# West Greenwich:
#   2 to 145
##
# Total of
# > 7 to 556
##

NEWPORT
# Jamestown:
#   5 to 11
# Little Compton:
#   63 to 57
# Middletown:
#   6 to 40
# Newport:
#   1 to 10
# Portsmouth:
#   12 to 60
# Tiverton:
#   23 to 92
##
# Total of
# > 110 to 270
##

PROVIDENCE
# Cranston:
#   0 to 101
# Cumberland:
#   10 to 113
# Foster:
#   0 to 177
# Glocester:
#   9 to 228
# Johnston:
#   1 to 79
# North Providence:
#   0 to 48
# Providence:
#   0 to 1
# Scituate:
#   0 to 156
# Smithfield:
#   2 to 158
##
# Total of
# > 22 to 1,061
##

WASHINGTON
# Charlestown:
#   6 to 51
# Exeter:
#   6 to 136
# Hopkinton:
#   33 to 95
# New Shoreham:
#   0 to 32
# North Kingstown:
#   2 to 160
# Richmond:
#   1 to 68
# South Kingstown:
#   1 to 125
# Westerly Town
#   12 to 56
##
# Total of
# > 61 to 723
##

I hope to produce a town-level map eventually, but that requires digging up and mapping the 1788 town boundaries.

[minionofmidas]

I seem to recall the franchise was pretty restricted... the Providence result though... talk about a successful boycott, indeed.

[jimrtex]

I seem to recall the franchise was pretty restricted... the Providence result though... talk about a successful boycott, indeed.

You're thinking of Dorr's Rebellion.  RI&PP continued to operate under its royal charter even after the American Revolution.  The franchise was limited to landowners, which in an agrarian (non-feudal) society is roughly the same as universal adult male suffrage.  Later under urbanization, fewer and fewer persons had the vote.