What's in a name? Rhode Island is debating whether to change its official name, which reminds some residents of its slave-trading past.

• Author: Goodnough, Abby
• Position: NATIONAL

Rhode Island's full name doesn't appear on its state flag or license plates. You won't see it on road maps or welcome signs. But the state's formal name--State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations--is a reminder for some residents of the state's prominent role in the slave trade.

Defenders of the name say that the word "plantation" did not have a negative connotation when Rhode Island was founded in 1636, and that it referred to the state's fanning settlements. But the colony's economy did thrive on the slave trade in its early years. In what was known as the triangle trade, Rhode Island imported molasses from the West Indies to distill into rum, traded the rum in Africa for slaves, and then sold the slaves in the West Indies.

"We have more and more people in the state saying, 'Look, change the name,'" says Joseph Almeida, a State Representative from Providence, the capital. "We don't want to change history. We want to add to it."

Although about 90 percent of black slaves lived in the South, most of the ships that brought them to America were based in the North. In fact, 60 percent of American slave-trading voyages originated in Rhode Island, and slaves also worked on many of the state's large farms. In 1784, Rhode Island adopted the Gradual Emancipation Act, which freed all slaves born there after March 1st of that year.

James Campbell, a history professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, says that most Americans are unaware of just how pervasive slavery was. "It's not the case of a few families, a few bad men, a few institutions," Campbell told The Boston Globe. "This is a trade. This is an institution which shaped every aspect of American society, culture, and economy for hundreds of years."

The first black slaves brought to the Colonies arrived in Virginia in 1619. Slaves provided a crucial workforce for European settlers, many of whom lacked fanning skills and were unaccustomed to physical labor, and the slave trade quickly became a lucrative business. By 1807, an estimated 15 million Africans had been brought to the Americas, chained together in the cramped cargo holds of slave ships. Between 10 and 20 percent died during the six-week voyage.

PART OF THE ECONOMIC FABRIC

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