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Today in history 10-9

Started by remrogers, October 09, 2019, 09:01:57 AM

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remrogers

1635
October 09
Rhode Island founder banished from Massachusetts

Religious dissident Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court of Massachusetts. Williams had spoken out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land.

After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island. He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came. Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community “Providence.”

Among those who found a haven in the religious and political refuge of the Rhode Island Colony were Anne Hutchinsonâ€"like Williams, she had been exiled from Massachusetts for religious reasonsâ€"some of the first Jews to settle in North America, and the Quakers. In Providence, Roger Williams also founded the first Baptist church in America and edited the first dictionary of Native-American languages.

Okanagan

A history professor told a class I was in that Rhode Island under Roger Williams was the first time in history that the Edict of Milan, granting freedom of religion to all, was fulfilled.  Constantine proclaimed freedom of religion in 313 AD. Roger Williams achieved it in 1635 AD.  Some ideas take a long time to take hold.