Roger Williams, Prophet and Pioneer of Soul-Liberty

by Arthur Barsazou Strickland

—Caroline Hazard, Poem read on “Rhode Island Day” at World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, October 5, 1893.

THE ideal of democracy grew in all the New England colonies and led eventually to the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States of America. Rhode Island, however, in the century prior to the Revolution, had never given up her advocacy of soul-liberty, and thus the Revolution was to her a greater struggle than to the other colonies. This distinct feature will be seen in a study of the real successors of Roger Williams, in the struggle for religious liberty. Therefore it is interesting to note some of the outstanding events in the history of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, previous to the Revolutionary War.

In June, 1700, a lot was set aside for a training-ground, a burial-ground, and other public uses. Thus originated the North Burial Ground, the first public burial-ground in the colony. Before this each family had buried on its own land. Not until 1760, when Benefit Street was laid through the burial-grounds of many of the citizens, including the land where Roger Williams first settled, did they come to use in a general way this North Burial Ground. Then many bodies were removed to the new place for burial.

The second house of worship to be erected in the colony, in 1704, was the Friends’ Meeting House, in what is now Lincoln. It is still standing, although with an extensive addition. The Friends’ Meeting House in Providence was erected about the same time. The First Congregational Church was organized in 1720, a meeting-house being erected in 1723. It was on the site of the present county court-house. In 1722, the Episcopalians erected their first church building. It was called King’s Church, and was on the site of the present St. John’s Church on North Main Street. In 1798, the Methodists organized their first church, building their first meeting-house in 1816 at the corner of Aborn and Washington Streets. The Roman Catholics commenced their work in 1827, meeting in Mechanics’ Hall, afterward in the old Town House. From the very start no discouragement was given to any church to organize in Rhode Island. During this same period of time Baptists were hindered in other colonies.

In 1660, the proprietors of the colony ordered the setting aside of one hundred acres of upland and six of meadows to be reserved for the maintenance of a school. In 1696, a piece of land on Dexter Lane, or Stamper’s Hill, was set apart for a school. This schoolhouse was built about the year 1697, about fifty feet north of Olney Street, on the east side of Stamper’s Street. It was used for about fifty years. The schoolmaster probably received all of his compensation from the scholars. A lot on the end of the Court House Parade was left for a school building. The first reference to a school house on this lot is found in the town records for 1752. The town leased this schoolhouse to a schoolmaster. In 1769, the first free school was established on King’s Street, now Meeting Street. This building is used now as a fresh-air school.

Brown University

As early as 1762 a movement was instituted by James Manning of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, to establish in Rhode Island a university on the broad basis of religious freedom, but under the special care of the Baptists. A charter, to be presented to the General Assembly in 1763, was prepared by Rev. Ezra Stiles, a Congregational minister at Newport. When the document was ready for presentation, it was noticed that the governing power was to be given to a presbyterian body. That occasioned postponement. A charter was granted, however, in February, 1764, under the name of “The Trustees and Fellows of the College or University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England in America.” The corporation was given power to change its name. It organized with James Manning as president. Active teaching work was commenced at Warren in 1766. The founding of this university was an event touching not only the life of Rhode Island, but of the whole country. As a Baptist movement, it was first proposed by Morgan Edwards in 1762, at the Philadelphia Baptist Association. James Manning came from the little church at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and from a Baptist Association to the only place in America, at that time, where a Baptist university could be established. The Baptists desired the controlling power, but not the whole power of administration, in order to preserve their great principle of religious freedom. According to the original charter, twenty-two of the thirty-six trustees were to be Baptists, five Quakers, four Congregationalists, and five Episcopalians. Of the twelve fellows, eight were to be Baptist, the rest indefinitely of any or all denominations. The following extract shows the Baptist ideal:

into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests, but, on the contrary, all the members hereof, shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience; and that the places of professors, tutors, and all other officers, the President alone excepted, shall be free and open for all denominations of Protestants, and the youths of all religious denominations shall and may be admitted to the equal advantages, emoluments, and honors of the university; and that the sectarian differences shall not make any part of the public and classical instructions.

Its early history is interesting. There was but one student during its first year, the Rev. William Rogers, of Newport, then fourteen years old. In 1767, four new students enrolled. The first years of the college were spent at Warren, where Dr. James Manning, the president, was the acting pastor of a Baptist church recently organized. In 1769, the first class of seven was ready for graduation and the first commencement was held on September 7, 1769.

The various towns of the colony contended earnestly to have the college permanently located with them. Newport considered that her large gifts to the college were sufficient to give her the preference. Providence, being a stronger center for the Baptists, won, and, in 1770, the college was moved to that city. The old brick schoolhouse, near the foot of Meeting Street, was the first building used by the college. The students boarded in private families at a dollar and a quarter a week. The building committee soon selected a better location for the school and a better place for housing the student body. Morgan Edwards said of the site finally selected: