The short and portly
Rhode Island aristocrat was hardly the image of the people’s champion, but in 1841, Thomas Dorr became just that. At a time when only white male landowners could vote, the idealistic Dorr envisioned a more democratic state. In October of that year, the People’s Convention ratified a new constitution that extended voting rights to those without land, and Dorr was named governor. That act would spark a small civil war, and violence erupted as the people of the state stood sharply divided in a conflict that reached the president and
United States Supreme Court. Author Rory Raven charts the tumultuous and ultimately tragic history of a man and a movement that were too far ahead of their time.
Background Information
Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams and other refugees from religious intolerance in Massachusetts. The Supreme Court is the highest judicial body in the country, and judges the actions of citizens and governments alike on the basis of the Constitution.
