 On June 22, 2020, Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo issued an executive order to remove the phrase 'Providence Plantations' from a range of official documents and state websites.In 1636, Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, and he settled at the top of Narragansett Bay on land sold or given to him by Narragansett sachem Canonicus.He named the site Providence, "having a sense of God's merciful providence unto me in my distress", and it became a place of religious freedom where all were welcome.