This is the next unit in the Rhode Island History course proposal:
Unit II: The Founding of Colonial RI and Roger Williams
Roger Williams c. 1603 - 1636
Roger Williams and Rhode Island’s Four First Towns
Roger Williams and Freedom of Religion
First Amendment: Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause
This unit will examine the founding of the English colony of Rhode Island by Roger Williams. A few years ago, through the History Book Club, I was part of the discussion for John Barry's Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty -- I was deeply impressed with his scholarship and quality of writing. I also had the opportunity to hear Professor Barry speak about Williams at the RI Statehouse. As I recall, after I found my seat I remembered I had forgotten my copy of his book -- too late then to drive back to Coventry and get it! I did have the opportunity to talk to him at length afterwards, and I'm sure he would have signed my copy of his book if I had remembered to bring it with me, but alas! it was still sitting atop the key cabinet right next to the front door where I wouldn't forget it...
Barry's book, which touches deeply on the civics themes this course is being designed to teach, will provide some of the insight and general source material for this unit. As Rhode Islanders some students are likely aware that Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island after being banished from Massachusetts, that he had treated the Narragansett with respect and that he had learned their language, and religious freedom was the hill he chose to die on. And he is the inspiration for the Independent Man, the statue that is on top of the RI Statehouse.
Despite the proliferation of statues and portraits, no actual likeness of Williams from his lifetime survived. So any images you've seen of him? Speculation and fiction. The statue of Williams at Roger Williams University? It's actually the face of Boston Red Sox leftfielder Ted Williams.[1]
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| The Many Faces of Roger Williams |
What many Rhode Islanders (and students taking this course) may not know about Roger Williams is that growing up, he was very close to the seat of power -- he was apprenticed to Sir Edward Coke, who is considered to the "one of the leading legal minds in British history;" perhaps even the "greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras."[2] According to Barry, Williams and Coke were grew so close that Coke stated he "was often pleased to call [Williams] . . . his Son"[3]. As a young man in Coke's orbit, he interacted with the likes of King James, Francis Bacon, and Oliver Cromwell. He attended Pembroke College in Cambridge, graduating with a B.A. in 1627. He had a natural inclination for languages. Besides English and Narragansett, he spoke and read Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Dutch, and French. These government connections and abilities served him well when as the founder of Rhode Islander he was the chief diplomat between English settlers and the Narragansett, and also in his efforts to secure a royal charter for the colony in 1643-44.
live.staticflickr.com/1219/1197815464_dfc89bb5c6_b.jpg https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/near-this-spot-roger-williams
Another potential civics theme could be related to the importance of democracy (and/or localism) for early Rhode Islanders and towns
There are several other key takeaways about Williams. One, he was strongly devoted to democracy, and the prominence of the town meeting as a decision making body in Providence had a profound influence on the other towns that followed. Rhode Island has had and continues to have a very strong tradition of democracy and local decision-making bordering at times on parochialism. The separatism among the founders of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick and attachment to locale can still be seen in the resistance to ideas such as combining all RI LEAs into a single school district, or combining several of towns in the western part of the state into a single entity called Westconnaug. Or even in the reluctance to this day of many Rhode Islanders to avoid traveling to other parts of the state; ironic given that we are the smallest state.
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| Bumper sticker seen on numerous cars in RI (ineverleaverhodeisland.bigcartel.com, Etsy.com & other online shops) |
The maps of the Rhode Island completed in the RI Geography unit (Unit 1) will briefly make their first reappearance with sub-section two, "Roger Williams and Rhode Island’s Four First Towns."
Another key point was his belief in the separation off church and state. It is important to understanding Rhode Island history why Williams left Massachusetts and that the he and the other colonists were regarded as outcasts and heretics by the self-righteous Puritan colonies that surrounded them. While one cannot make a direct connection between Williams' arguments for a "wall of separation" between church and state in, say his 1644 The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, and Thomas Jefferson asking for a similar “wall of separation” between church and state in an 1802 letter he wrote to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, the ideas of toleration and freedom of conscience he espoused are the same found in the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in the First Amendment of the Constitution. No one knows whether Jefferson or Madison read Roger Williams; his name doesn't come up in their writings and letters. Nonetheless, the principles of religious that Rhode Island stood were clearly stated in its 1663 charter, and the founding fathers were certainly aware of that. In 1638, Williams formed a congregation which is today recognized as the First Baptist Church in America. Finally, exploring Williams' protests against both the Church of England and the Puritans, both of which persecuted him and wanted to see him dead over his beliefs, are an important civic lesson in freedom of conscience and the power of protest, also enshrined in the US Constitution in the First Amendment.
Finally, there are several locations that would make for excellent field trips. First is Cocumscussoc, or Smith's Castle near Wickford on North Kingstown RI. This area was first settled by Roger Williams in 1637, where he built a trading post near the location of Smith's Castle, and in the latter part of the 1640s Williams left Providence to live at his trading post until he sold his land and house to Richard Smith, who built the aforementioned Smith's Castle. According to historian Howard M. Chapin, “[i]t seems probable that the Williams trading house and the Smith trading house were on adjoining tracts of land northeast of Cocumcussoc Brook and northeast of Wickford Harbor.” Roger Williams sold his house and land to Smith in 1651 [4].
There are also two locations in Providence. The Roger Williams National Memorial operated by the National Park Service at 282 North Main Street, which
was established by Congress in 1965 to commemorate Williams’s “outstanding contributions to the development of the principles of freedom in this country.” The memorial, a 4.5 acre urban greenspace located at the foot of College Hill in downtown Providence, includes a freshwater spring which was the center of the settlement of Providence Plantations founded by Williams in 1636. It is on this site that Williams, through word and action, fought for the ideal that religion must not be subject to regulation by the state but, instead, that it should be a matter of individual conscience.[5]
Roger Williams Park is operated by the Providence Parks Department and designed by Horace Cleveland a leader in the Urban Parks Movement. Betsey Williams, the great-great-great granddaughter of Roger Williams, left 102 acres of farmland and woodland to the city of Providence upon her death in 1871, to be used for public purpose. The site includes the Williams Family Cemetery where many of Roger Williams' descendants are interred, and the cottage where Betsey Williams was born in 1773.[6]
Finally, there is the burial site of Roger Williams himself. Originally buried behind his house on what is today North Main Street (and the Roger Williams National Memorial), he was moved to a family crypt in the Old North Burial Ground. In 1936 to commemorate the 300th year since the founding of Providence, a statue of Williams was erected on Prospect Terrace just up the hill from his original burial site, and he and his wife Mary were interred at the foot of the statue. [7]
Guiding Questions (DRAFT)
How did Roger Williams' early life in England prepare him to become a leader in colonial New England?
Why did Williams' beliefs bring him into conflict with the Church of England, and then the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay?
What is freedom of religion according to the First Amendment? What do these rights mean for Americans? Why is this an important freedom?
Describe Roger Williams interactions with the Narragansetts. How was he different from other English colonial leaders in his dealings with native peoples? How was he similar?
What is an iconoclast? Was Roger Williams an iconoclast? Explain -- why or why not.
Resources (so far)
EnCompass Rhode Island History Digital Textbook: Chapter 1 “Roger Williams and the Founding of Rhode Island”
Barry, William. Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul (2012)
Early Records of the Town of Providence (1892)
Williams, Roger, A Key into the Language of America (1643)
Roger Williams National Memorial - National Park Service
Betsey Williams Cottage and the Williams family burial ground - Roger Williams Park Historic District (National Register of Historic Places)
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[1] FAQs, National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/rowi/faqs.htm
[2] Edward Coke, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/rowi/learn/historyculture/edwardcoke.htm. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coke
[3] John Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (2012), p 23.
[4] Robert Geake, "The Narragansett at Cocumscussoc" August 9, 2014, rifootprints.com; also see "Home Away from Home," Carter Roger Williams Initiative http://www.findingrogerwilliams.com/essays/home-away-from-home
[5] Roger Williams National Memorial webpage "History & Culture: A Champion for Religious Freedom" https://www.nps.gov/rowi/learn/historyculture/index.htm
[6] Roger Williams Park Conservancy webpage "Mission: The People’s Park" https://rwpconservancy.org/about/plant-walks-in-roger-williams-park-2-2-2022-06-02/
[7] National Park Service webpage, Prospect Terrace https://www.nps.gov/places/prospect-terrace.htm
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