We have this… myth… in our heads. It’s born from a combination of Manifest Destiny and the desire to see ourselves in a certain light, but the truth is that the Constitution of the United States was highly radical, highly controversial and absolutely not universally proclaimed as the best way of governing ourselves in 1787.

Not only were there vicious and lengthy diatribes in newspapers and town meetings, even the conventions called in twelve of the States were divided and contentious. But one State in particular, held itself so against the Constitution and its ratification, that when a group of citizens gathered at a BBQ to celebrate the ratification of the Constitution by a neighboring State, it called out a brigade of militia troops to stop the celebration. At. Gun. Point.

The story of tiny Rhode Island’s road to ratification is both amusing and at the same time, a little unnerving. It’s not something that we today like to think about and we never talk about it. The idea that the smallest State in the Union could cause so much havoc and debate is a matter of history. One that we have, for the most part, forgotten.