Rhode Island aristocrat, Thomas Dorr, was hardly the image of the people's champion, but in 1841 he 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. The town of Chepachet, Rhode Island, is where he convened his "People's Legislature" and attempted to implement the People's Constitution in 1842 during the Dorr Rebellion.