PART 1: NEW & DANGEROUS OPINIONS
In 1620, the Pilgrims land on Plymouth Rock. Needing help to get acclimated to this foreign land, they seek out help from the local native tribes. The Wampanoag leader, Massasoit, helped these European arrivals establish a Colony in Plymouth. By 1628, Massachusetts Bay Colony is established as well. Two years later a man arrives who would forever change the landscape of this new burgeoning world. This man’s name is Roger Williams. Williams was a pupil of English Chief Justice, Edward Coke, who was a staunch believer in liberty. Coke’s teachings made a palpable impact on young Roger’s character. Williams would grow from student to teacher, and in-turn would eventually go on to tutor one of the greatest poets who ever lived – John Milton. Milton is best known for his great English epic, Paradise Lost. Fittingly, “paradise lost” is a perfect way to describe the theme of Roger Williams’ harrowing story, for he was to lose his “paradise” time and time again throughout the course of his life. This Puritan minister was to set a new standard for the American character. He was the country’s first Baptist, first rebel, and in this writer's opinion first real estate broker. Williams had a hand in creating and shaping so many of the things that Rhode Islanders and Bay-Staters still see every day nearly four centuries later. This writing is meant to be his swan song.
To understand the man that Williams was and why he matters so much to our region’s great history, one first has to understand the environment in which he was raised. There was a religious civil war brewing in his homeland. King James and the Church of England had blurred the lines of religion and politics in a discomforting way for many. The notion of divine right was the main point of contention. That is, the Church of England promulgated the idea that the King possessed a divine right to rule from God – and thusly, the king was essentially God on earth. To men like Francis Bacon, the king was indeed above the laws of both God and man, but to men like Roger Williams this was truly a blasphemous idea. It was just a matter of time before Williams boarded a ship to the New World in search of religious freedom – far away from the corruption he saw all around him.
When Williams arrived in Massachusetts, the Boston church (knowing how spiritually enlightened he was) offered him a post. Williams declined, claiming that the Boston church was too entrenched in politics; according to Williams, a church should be fully invested in matters of God alone. Williams was a devout believer in the separation between church and state. He believed that the state should only concern itself with the second half of the Ten Commandments, because those five rules are with respect to our fellow man. The first five commandments, however, concern the relationship between man and God, and subsequently, it is not man’s place to make judgment or interject his opinion on such matters. Interestingly, in our modern world, the proponents for separation of church and state do not want religion to corrupt our politics, but from Roger Williams’s perspective, he didn’t want politics to corrupt his religion. He was a Puritan in every sense of the word. Ironically, it was because he was so religious, that he was such a secularist. His position on this matter was to put him in direct conflict with some of the most powerful people in the New World.
The Salem church shared many of Williams’ separatist beliefs, and they invited him there to preach. The leaders in Boston, however, pressured Salem to rescind their invitation – and fearful of reprisal, they did. This led Williams to set his sights on Plymouth. For the next two years, he preached in Plymouth to a very receptive congregation, but before long Williams began to see this place differently. The Plymouth church failed to live up to Williams’s high ideals of separatism. Also, at this time, his dealings with the Narragansett tribe made him realize that the way that the colonists were coming to possess land from the Natives was “unsettling” so to speak. Williams believed that the Natives deserved to be treated fairly in all land deals. In 1632, he wrote an essay challenging England’s right of land ownership of the colonies. Needless to say, this was not a popular opinion at the time, and Williams was to find this out the hard way.
In December of 1633, just two months after he returned to Salem, Williams was summoned before the General Court in Boston to explain his controversial writings. This was their not-so-subtle way of warning him to stop. Nonetheless, in 1634, Williams finally became the pastor in Salem. He used his position in the church to further his opinions. The court in Boston did not take too kindly to this direct affront to their authority. It was only a matter of time before they would wield their political might, and make Williams stand trial for his “new and dangerous opinions.” He was convicted of sedition and heresy, and was banished from the colony. In some respects, many saw this as a death sentence. Add that to the fact that winter was fast approaching and Williams (under the stress of all this) had become quite sick. The court cut him a break, however, and they delayed the exile until both the weather and his health were better – that is, just as long as he stopped preaching his dangerous ideas.
A running theme in the story of Roger Williams is that no one was going to tell him what he could or could not do. So of course, Williams continued preaching in spite of the stay of execution he was granted. As was his nature, he refused to be silenced. The court caught wind of this and sent the sheriff to his home to arrest him; however, when he arrived Williams was gone. “But how?” the sheriff wondered. “Who told him I was coming? Where was he going to go? He was sick and it was the middle of a terrible blizzard.” Williams travelled over 50 miles in the snow from Salem to Raynham, Massachusetts. It was there that he sought out shelter from the ever-helpful Wampanoags They provided Roger with some much-needed food and shelter, and over the next three months, Williams and the Wampanoag leader, Massasoit, formed an indelible bond that would go on the shape the colonies in immeasurable ways for both the coming generations.
​
​
PART 2: THE WAY TO PROVIDENCE
The Native Americans not only provided shelter for the fugitive, but they also provided him with a valuable piece of land right along the Seekonk River in what is now Rumford, Rhode Island. Roger Williams found a place to hideout while the heat died down with Massasoit and his Wampanoag tribe, and once winter ended he purchased land from the Narragansett tribe, where he could re-establish himself as a powerful voice of change. As soon as his crops began to take root in Rumford, however, the Plymouth charter told Williams that this land was theirs. And furthermore, they were not trying to go against the wishes of Massachusetts Bay Colon by harboring a fugitive on their land. So the point was clear, “you have to leave.” Williams understood, and with his band of outcasts from Salem, he crossed the Seekonk River. He found a new place beyond the reach of either Plymouth or Massachusetts, and on this new tract of land he established a church and a colony. He called this new place Providence -- in honor of God -- the one who brought him here by his divine grace. In 1938, Williams founded the first Baptist Church in America. It is still standing on Main Street in Providence (although the current version was constructed in 1775). Also at this time, another Church was born – Benjamin Church – but more on him later.
Having established a good, equitable relationship with the local tribes, Williams became their voice in the colonies. He did this, quite literally in fact. He wrote A Key Into the Language of America. It was a sort of “how to” book for colonists, instructing them in Native American communication and culture. This book was widely acclaimed for both its eloquence and its utility. And more than just that, Williams writes from an empathetic point of view, putting the colonist reader in the proverbial shoes of the Natives, in order to show them that they are not better than them simply by their birth:
When Indians hear the horrid filths,
Of Irish, English men.
The horrid oaths and murders late
Thus say these Indians then:
We wear no clothes, have many Gods,
And yet our sinners are less
You are Barbarians, Pagans wild,
Your Land’s the Wilderness. *
Williams, in so many ways with A Key, gives a voice to the Native Americans who otherwise would not have been heard. He also began to broker land deals between the Natives and colonists and in so doing he expanded his power as well as theirs. In 1937, when the religious sect, the Antinomians, were banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony, he brokered transactions between the Narragansetts and many of these newly exiled Baptists. These important land deals included what is now Newport and Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Around this same time, a war broke out between the colonists and the Pequot tribes from Connecticut. In desperation, Massachusetts Bay Colony reached out to Williams for help. Williams, looking past his banishment, acquiesced. He convinced the Narragansett tribe to fight alongside the colonists to defeat the Pequots. Once this war came to an end, Williams managed to keep a peace between the Natives and colonists for nearly 40 years -- although the wheels starting coming off the proverbial track in 1662 with the death of the great Wampanoag leader, Massasoit, who once famously said, “the English are my friends and love me … while I live I will never forget this kindness they have showed me.”
PART 3: KING PHILLIP’S WAR
After Massasoit died, his eldest son Wamsutta became the new head of the Wampanoag nation, which included all of the tribes between Narragansett Bay and the Charles River. It appeared as though Wamsutta wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and keep the peace with the colonists. Just prior to Massasoit’s death, Wamsutta made a grand gesture, along with his brother Metacom, they adopted English names in order to strengthen their bond with the colonists. Wamsutta became known as Alexander, and Metacom became known as Philip. It has been said that they did this at the behest of John Sassamon, an early Harvard graduate who was a “praying Indian,” which is a term used in reference to the fact that he was a Native American who had adopted the English lifestyle – their language, customs, and religion.
Wamsutta began to use his new position of power to sell Wampanoag lands to different colonists in the region. Many in Plymouth Colony, however, were threatened by the influence he was wielding. They did not take too kindly to the way he was restructuring the political landscape, as it were. The leaders of the Plymouth Colony had him arrested for selling a piece of land to Roger Williams. The Plymouth leaders released Wamsutta, and shortly after, he mysteriously died. At this point in the story, it is important to point out how far we have come. In 1620, Massasoit helped found the Plymouth Colony, and now in 1662 that same Colony’s leaders had his son arrested and killed.
With Wamsutta’s death, his brother Metacom becomes the new Sachem. For obvious reasons Metacom has a great sense of distrust of the colonists. He keeps John Sassamon as his trusted advisor and translator, for he believes he will be the best man to act as his intermediary, for he has lived and been accepted into both the Native American and English worlds, and must know how to ease the tension between the two sides. He would soon discover that this was not the case. Sassamon always longed for the approval of the colonists, and in keeping with that character trait, he revealed to them that Metacom, i.e. “King Phillip” was planning an attack on the colonies. Shortly after this, Sassamon ends up dead. And in quick response, the colonists put three of King Phillip’s men on trial for Sassamon’s murder. All three are sent to the gallows and hanged. These actions set into motion the most fatal war (by population) in the history of America.
Despite being in his seventies, Roger Williams was named the Captain of the Providence Militia. What a tumultuous life. Williams, was much like the Plymouth Colony leaders that he despised. Similarly, he went from seeking refuge from Massasoit when the Massachusetts Bay colonists were after him, to taking up arms against that same man’s son. Both of these actions, however, were done as a means to survive. During King Phillip’s War, half of every colony was completely decimated. Even Roger Williams’ own home in Providence was burned to the ground.
A Boston merchant described the devastating loss of the war place by place: In Narragansett there was "not one house," in Warwick "but one," in Providence "not above three," in Seekonk "very few," in Swansea "two at most," and in Rehoboth and Taunton the "greatest part destroyed." The colonists were just about to leave the colonies altogether, and perhaps even load up all of their belongings on a ship and head back to England, but there was one man who refused to quit. This man’s name was Benjamin Church. He was the first U.S. Army Ranger. He had an important man amongst his rangers, another “praying Indian,” a man named John Alderman. Church’s expedition tracked King Phillip to his home on Mt. Hope, which is now part of Bristol, Rhode Island, and it was there that Alderman shot and killed the rebellious King Phillip. As a reward for his deed, Alderman was given King Phillip’s head, which he later sold to Plymouth Colony. They put the head on a pike, on Burial Hill, about a third of a mile from Plymouth Rock. This story begins and ends in basically the same spot, and this fittingly shows that no matter how far we think we have come, we really have not gotten anywhere if we have to fight each other to get ahead (no pun intended).
The Pilgrims and Puritans came from England in order to be free from religious corruption and persecution. Unfortunately many of them had a hard time affording others that same existence. Roger Williams was a part of the minority then, but luckily for us New Englanders now, his opinions have taken root. We can practice whatever religion we want or speak whatever language we so desire without fear of reprisal, and no matter what our background or creed, we are guaranteed fair treatment in all housing and land deals by our states’ governments.
PART 4: THE AFTERWORD
I chose to name this historical work Church and State for a couple of important reasons. The first being that through his actions regarding this point, one can clearly see Roger Williams’ sense of liberty, and this is crucial because his sense of liberty is indicative of the spirit and character that is deeply entrenched in the land in which we call "home" -- Rhode Island & Massachusetts. The second important reason for the title is to show the incredible way that this story unfolds analogously and emblematically on a more elemental level. That is to say, it is incredibly fascinating and definitely worth note, that a man who was literally named Church led the expedition that ended with the killing of the last vestige of the peaceful connection of the two “states” that were brought together nearly a half a century earlier by Massasoit and Roger Williams in fraternal love. In other words, this battle of church and state was a predominate theme throughout the life of Roger Williams, no matter how you look at it. One cannot help but see the monumental impact it has had on shaping our New England landscape.
If you hear the swan sing, I advise that you to pay close attention, because if you listen carefully enough, you will hear the epic song of our land, and learn how one rebel refused to back down, and in so doing stood up for the rights of the masses.
Sources
1. Barry, John M. “America’s First Rebel: Roger Williams & the Birth of Liberty.” Youtube.com. Channel: ReasonTv. Web Video. Pub. July 16, 2012.
2. Barry, John M. “God, Government & Roger Williams’ Big Idea.” Smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian Magazine. Web. January 2012.
3. Garrity, Lyn. “John M. Barry On Roger Williams & the Indians.” Smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian Magazine. Web. January 2012.
4. “King Phillip’s War.” Youtube.com. Channel: Rebecca Jones. Oct 1, 2014.
5. Lepore, Jill. “King Phillip’s War, and the Origins of American Identity: History Effects, Facts (1998). Youtube.com. Channel: Way Back. Published August 11, 2015. American Antiquarian Society.
6. “Roger Williams… A Brief History.” Roger Williams Family Association. Rogerwilliams.org. Web.
​