Life in Eighteenth Century Rhode Island
The first census taken in Rhode Island in 1708 showed that there were 7,181 people living in this colony. Of these, just over 1,000 were freemen. The military force numbered 1,362 and consisted of all the male population between the ages of 16 and 60. There was a constant drain on this body because the 18th century was a century of wars – from Queen Anne’s War against France and Spain, through King George’s War, the French-Indian War, the Seven Years’ War, to the American Revolution. The establishing of quotas of men to wage these wars and the levying of taxes to finance them was a way of life in the colonies in the 1700s.
This article is taken from the 1965-66 Yearbook of Rhode Island, Cradle of Liberty & Land of Promise.