Banishment of Roger Williams.—Flight to the Seekonk.—Landing at Providence.—Commencement of a Settlement
within six weeks. He obtained leave to remain until the rigors of winter had passed, but, continuing active in promoting his peculiar views, the court determined to ship him immediately for England. He was ordered to Boston for the purpose of embarking. He refused obedience, and, hearing that a warrant had been issued for his arrest, set out, with a few followers, for the vast unexplored wilds of America, with an ambitious determination to found a new colony, having for its foundation the sublime doctrine of liberty of conscience in all its plenitude, and the equality of opinions before the law. In the midst of deep snows and bitter January, 1636 winds they journeyed toward Narraganset Bay. "For fourteen weeks he was 1636. sorely tossed in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." * He describes himself, in a letter to Mason, "as plucked up by the roots, beset with losses, distractions, miseries, hardships of sea and land, debts and wants." He at last found refuge and hospitality from the Indian sachem Massasoit, whom he had known at Plymouth; and in the spring, under a grant from that sachem, commenced a settlement at Seekonk, ** on the east side of the Seekonk or Pawtucket River, just within the limits of the Plymouth colony. Many of the ministers in that colony wrote him friendly letters, for he was personally beloved by all. Winslow, who was then governor, wrote a letter to Williams, in which he claimed Seekonk as a part of the Plymouth domain, and suggested his removal beyond the jurisdiction of that colony to prevent difficulty. Williams heeded the advice of Winslow, June, 1636 and entering a canoe with five others, paddled down the Seekonk almost to its mouth, and landed upon the west side of the river, upon the bare rock, delineated on page 52. He crossed over to the west side of the peninsula, and upon that shore, at the head of the bay, commenced a new settlement. He obtained from Canonicus and Miantonômoh, principal chiefs of the Narragansets, a grant of land for the purpose. He named his new settlement Providence, "in commemoration of God's providence to him in his distress."
"I desired," he said, "it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience." And so it became, for men of every creed there found perfect freedom of thought. Although every rood of land belonged to Williams, by right of deed from the Narraganset sachems, not a foot of it did he reserve for himself. He practiced his holy precepts, and "gave away his lands and other estates to them that he thought most in want, until he gave away all." *** Nor was there any distinction made among the settlers, "whether servants or strangers;" each had an equal voice in the affairs of government, and the political foundation of the settlement was a pure democracy. The Massachusetts people believed that the fugitives "would have no magistrates," and must necessarily perish politically, yet they thrived wonderfully. The impress of that first system is yet seen upon the political character of Rhode Island, for "in no state in the world, not even in the agricultural state of Vermont, have the magistrates so little power, or the representatives of the freemen so much." **** Such was the planting of the first and only purely democratic colony in America; and its founder, though persecuted and contemned, maintained, in the opinion of all good men, that high character which Cotton Mather and others were constrained to award him, as "one of the most distinguished men that ever lived, a most pious and heavenly-minded soul." (v)
The Christian charity of Roger Williams was remarkably displayed soon after his banishment from Massachusetts. In 1637, when the Pequots were attempting to induce the Narragansets to join them in a general war upon the whites, and particularly against the
* Massachusetts Historical Collections, i., 276.
** Seekonk is the Indian name for the wild or black goose with which the waters in that region originally abounded. The town is the ancient Rehoboth, first settled by William Blackstone, an English non-conformist minister, a few months previous to the arrival here of Roger Williams. Blackstone was the first white man who lived upon the peninsula of Shawmut, where Boston now stands. Williams's plantation was on the little Seekonk River, the navigable portion of which is really an arm of Narraganset Bay. Although Williams was the real founder of Rhode Island, Blackstone was the first white settler within its borders. He had no sympathy with Williams, and continued his allegiance to Massachusetts, though without its jurisdiction.
*** Backus's History of New England, i., 290.
**** Bancroft, i., 380.
(v) Callender's Historical Discourse.
Williams's Negotiations with the Indians.—Ingratitude of the Massachusetts Colony.—March of the French Army to Providence.