ROGER WILLIAMS (1603-1683)

Book: The Beginner's American History

Chapter: IX | Roger Williams

Author: D. H. Montgomery

Roger Williams comes to Boston; he preaches in Salem and in Plymouth; his friendship for the Indians.

Shortly after Governor John Winthrop and his company settled Boston, a young minister named Roger Williams came over from England to join them.

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Mr. Williams soon became a great friend to the Indians and while he preached at Salem, near Boston, and at Plymouth, he came to know many of them. He took pains to learn their language, and he spent a great deal of time talking with the chief Massasoit and his men, in their dirty, smoky wigwams. He made the savages feel that, as he said, his whole heart's desire was to do them good. For this reason they were always glad to see him and ready to help him. A time came, as we shall presently see, when they were able to do quite as much for him as he could for them.

Who owned the greater part of America? What the king of England thought; what Roger Williams thought and said.

The company that had settled Boston held the land by permission of the king of England. He considered that most of the land in America belonged to him, because John Cabot had discovered it.

But Roger Williams said that the king had no right to the land unless he bought it of the Indians, who were living here when the English came.

Now the people of Massachusetts were always quite willing to pay the Indians a fair price for whatever land they wanted; but many of them were afraid to have Mr. Williams preach and write as he did. They believed that if they allowed him to go on speaking out so boldly against the king that the English monarch would get so angry that he would take away Massachusetts from them and give it to a new company. In that case, those who had settled here would lose everything. For this reason the people of Boston tried to make the young minister agree to keep silent on this subject.

A constable is sent to arrest Roger Williams; he escapes to the woods, and goes to Mount Hope.

But Mr. Williams was not one of the kind to keep silent. Then the chief men of Boston sent a constable down to Salem with orders to seize him and send him back to England. When he heard that the constable was after him, Mr. Williams slipped quietly out of his house and escaped to the woods.

There was a heavy depth of snow on the ground, but the young man made up his mind that he would go to his old friend Massasoit, and ask him to help him in his trouble.

Massasoit lived near Mount Hope, in what is now Rhode Island, about eighty miles southwest from Salem. There were no roads through the woods, and it was a long, dreary journey to make on foot, but Mr. Williams did not hesitate. He took a hatchet to chop fire-wood, a flint and steel to strike fire with,—for in those days people had no matches,—and, last of all, a pocket-compass to aid him in finding his way through the thick forest.

All day he waded wearily on through the deep snow, only stopping now and then to rest or to look at his compass and make sure that he was going in the right direction. At night he would gather wood enough to make a little fire to warm himself or to melt some snow for drink. Then he would cut down a few boughs for a bed, or, if he was lucky enough to find a large, hollow tree, he would creep into that. There he would fall asleep, while listening to the howling of the wind or to the fiercer howling of the hungry wolves prowling about the woods.

At length, after much suffering from cold and want of food, he managed to reach Massasoit's wigwam. There the big-hearted Indian chief gave him a warm welcome. He took him into his poor cabin and kept him till spring—there was no board bill to pay. All the Indians liked the young minister, and even Canonicus, that savage chief of a neighboring tribe, who had dared Governor Bradford to fight, said that he "loved him as his own son."

Roger Williams at Seekonk; "What cheer, friend?"

When the warm days came, in the spring of 1636, Mr. Williams began building a log hut for himself at Seekonk, on the east bank of the Seekonk River. But he was told that his cabin stood on ground owned by the people of Massachusetts; so he, with a few friends who had joined him, took a canoe and paddled downstream to find a new place to build.

"What cheer, friend? what cheer?" shouted some Indians who were standing on a rock on the western bank of the river. That was the Indian way of saying How do you do, and just then Roger Williams was right glad to hear it. He landed on what is now called "What Cheer Rock," and had a talk with the red men. They told him that there was a fine spring of water round the point of land a little further down. He went there, and liked the spot so much that he decided to stop. His friend Canonicus owned the land, and he gladly let him have what he needed. Roger Williams believed that a kind Providence had guided him to this pleasant place, and for this reason he named it PROVIDENCE.

Providence was the first settlement made in America which set its doors wide open to everyone who wished to come and live there. Not only all Christians, but Jews, and even men who went to no church whatever, could go there and be at peace. This great and good work was done by Roger Williams. Providence grew in time to be the chief city in the state of Rhode Island. When the Revolution began, every man and boy in the state, from sixteen to sixty, stood ready to fight for liberty.

Summary

Roger Williams, a young minister of Salem, Massachusetts, declared that the Indians, and not the king of England, owned the land in America. The governor of Massachusetts was afraid that if Mr. Williams kept on saying these things the king would hear of it and would take away the land held by the people of Boston and the other settlements. He therefore sent a constable to arrest the young minister and put him on board a ship going back to England. When Mr. Williams knew this, he fled to the Indian chief, Massasoit. In 1636 Roger Williams began building Providence. Providence was the first settlement in America which offered a home to all men without asking them anything whatever about their religious belief.