September 17th, 1787
Delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia sign the finished U.S. Constitution. But "unanimous" only counted the states that actually showed up. One of the original thirteen colonies never sent a single delegate.
One colony never showed up to help write the Constitution. Study the evidence below, then name the colony to crack the case.
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Exhibit 1
"I am one of the original thirteen colonies — but I sat out the entire Constitutional Convention, start to finish."
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Exhibit 2
"My state legislature feared a stronger federal government would take power away from me, so it boycotted the whole convention."
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Exhibit 3
"I ended up being the very last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the Constitution — nearly three years later, in 1790."
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Exhibit 4
"I belong to New England — one of just four colonies up there, alongside Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire."
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Exhibit 5
"Of the original thirteen colonies, none was smaller in land area than me — a title I still hold today."
Fearing a stronger federal government would erode its own authority, Rhode Island's legislature boycotted the Constitutional Convention entirely — the only one of the thirteen states to do so. It went on to become the last state to ratify the Constitution, in 1790, and remains the smallest state in the country today.
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