R Patrick Shaw
Roger Williams
I. Roger Williams was born in 1603 and he died in 1683. He was considered a radical Puritan thinker and is known as the founder of the colony of Rhode Island. Williams was intellectually brilliant and graduated from Cambridge in 1627. He was born to a London merchant tailor who is said to have influenced him towards the ministry. Williams was ordained in The Church of England in 1628. He came to the colonies during the first year of the Puritan migration to New England, arriving in Boston in 1631 with his family. Although he was initially warmly welcomed in Massachusetts, he was later ousted for his defense of freedom of religion. Shortly afterward, he founded the colony of Rhode Island whose first guiding principle was total religious freedom for all. Roger Williams is perhaps most noted, he was given credit by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, as the original thought influencer on the first amendment.
II. Williams and his defense of freedom of religion.
A. Williams defended the religious freedom of the Indians in Massachusetts Colony.
B. Williams argued that the lands given to Massachusetts and Plymouth belonged to the Indians and the government could not enforce religious laws.
C. Williams work among the Indians earned their loyalty, friendship, and respect; He mastered their language and later wrote A Key into the Language of America in 1 643.
D. Refusing to change his "very dangerous" ideas and "strange opinions" Williams was expelled from the colony in October of 1635.
E. He fled with his family and a few other families from Salem in January 1636 to the Indians on Narragansett Bay. He bought land at the head of the bay and named the tiny settlement, the first in Rhode Island, Providence.
F. Williams established as the first principle of the new settlement, and later colony, total religious freedom.
G. Williams denounced Quaker theology, yet consistent with his principles, gave them a haven in Rhode Island.
H. He wrote The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution in 1644, and later The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloudy in 1652; the former advocating religious freedom and the latter a critique of Cotton's argument that government must sustain the church.
III. Williams and his defense of freedom of speech.
A. Williams defense of freedom of speech was the logical extent of his defense of freedom of religion.
B. In The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloudy, Williams argued that government control of religion eventually meant government control of all areas of human endeavor.
C. In The Bloudy Tenents of Persecution, Williams argued that the government had no right to persecute him for his religious opinions and furthermore, he ought to be able to state them without fear of retribution. This was what lead him to become a stalwart in defense of the freedom of speech.
IV. It is difficult to dispute Williams contribution to the first amendment, and thus to freedom of speech, especially in light of the credit given to him by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. What I have attempted to demonstrate is that Williams was first and foremost a religious man. His opinions of freedom of speech were an outgrowth of his lifelong defense of freedom of religion. In fact, it is interesting to note that while he had strong theological disagreement with the Quakers he offered them solace in Rhode Island. If nothing else, even his detractors admired him for his consistency of thought. Indeed, consistency of thought is what lead him to defend the freedom of speech as well as the freedom of religion.
V.Blbliography
Camp, L. R., Roger Williams ( 1 989) .
Garrett, J., Roger Williams (1970).
Gilpin, W.C., The Milenarian Piety of Roger Williams (1979).
Morgan, E.S. Roger Williams (1988).