The true revolutionist in America often has been the solid citizen with firm conservative background, and surely Roger Williams, educated at Cambridge University, fell within that definition.  Williams, a Puritan ordained minister in his mid-twenties, because of his concept of the religious tolerance and liberty in his sermons was forced to flee an England that stubbornly and sternly insisted upon conformity to the established church. 

In 1631, Roger Williams arrived in Salem with this same spirit of liberty and a passion for democracy, boldly speaking out against those in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that had conformed to the ways of the Old World. He criticized the Massachusetts Bay Company for not paying the Indians for their lands. He spoke out against the Puritan Church for demanding that everyone worship God in the same way, which was their way, the very reason the Puritans fled England.

This led to Roger Williams’ banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  (So much like the liberals of today, which is the reverse of the true men of liberty in the beginning of this nation, just do away with those who oppose the point of view of the establishment, shout them down, speak evil of them in public, whatever it takes, just make them go away.)

What made Roger Williams the great revolutionary patriot of his day? It was his highly positive religious and intellectual individualism.  In that age, religious conformity was the general rule.  Williams was not willing to conform to the things that went against his core beliefs, such as the Puritans requiring men to be a member of the of church, and church and state being one, but rather pushed for the separation of church and state, giving the government of the day no authority over man’s freedom to worship God in the way he chose. Williams even stopped trying to convert the Indians to his religion and rules of worship, believing that any man can worship in the way he chooses.

Williams criticized the Puritan church for trying to use the government to enforce the Ten Commandments as a part of colony law.  He also criticized the law, requiring men to attend church regularly and taking an oath of loyalty.  Williams said plainly, Religion is none of the government’s business.

Roger Williams believed and taught to his church congregation the ideals and practices of democracy.  He believed that every man had certain rights by natural law; that government created by the people is always their servant, responsible to them, and can be changed whenever they wish.

This was strong doctrine for those days. Many men dare not be so bold.  The founders and leaders of Massachusetts could not tolerate such a man, so they banished him from their colony. 

The Massachusetts government was anything but democratic.  Its leaders abhorred democracy; their system concentrated political power in the hands of a select, self-appointed few, and its will was imposed upon the people as authoritative, even absolute. The idea that the people could change the form of the government was to them unthinkably revolutionary.  How right they were, it did start a revolution, and we are all the better for it.

In 1636, Williams made his way to Narragansett Bay and, there, having bought the land from the Indians, he and his followers built the town of Providence, founding it on the principles for which he had fought, everyone having an equal voice in government and in religion. Every individual was free to worship in the way he thought best.

In 1647, the town of Providence united with the towns of Warwick, Portsmouth, and Newport to form the colony of Rhode Island, where Williams’ principles were written into the constitution of the colony.  Thus, Rhode Island, under the inspiration and guidance of Roger Williams, became the great pilot experiment in American democracy and religious toleration.

Through the passage of time it has been shown that the colony of Massachusetts was wrong, and Roger Williams was right.  Roger Williams was a strait thinker, and fought for what he knew to be right for the future of a nation, the great nation of America, that all men are free and equal, they should not be lorded over by men, many or few, and they have the right to worship as they please without interference of church or government.

Yes, it was the smallest state of our nation, Rhode Island, who founded the greatest principles of freedom for the future of America.

References taken from the writings of Historian, Max Savelle, Professor of Ameriican History, University of Washington  and author of several books about the colonial period.