Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to Western SIEV episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty three, The Land of Descent. Now, if the New
Speaker 1: England forests on Cape Cod echo with scripture doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that every single voice sings in the same tune and
Speaker 1: some were silenced. If the New England patriots valued anything,
Speaker 1: it was conformity. I think it's important to point out
Speaker 1: that when the Pilgrims lived and left to found their
Speaker 1: new colonies, their new Jerusalem, their new Israel, the idea
Speaker 1: was never that they would have religious toler that was
Speaker 1: in anathema. The idea was that they would practice what
Speaker 1: they believed was the true faith. And there weren't other options.
Speaker 1: You were either saved a member of the separatist community,
Speaker 1: or you were damned. Now some people, though, questioned, and
Speaker 1: some refused to fall quiet, and this is one of
Speaker 1: those stories. Out of all these banishments, heresies, visions arose
Speaker 1: eventually a fragile and defiant little kingdom in the New World.
Speaker 1: It was carved out between bay and forest, settled on
Speaker 1: a land that hadn't been granted by the king, had
Speaker 1: been granted by a company, but had been purchased. Imagine
Speaker 1: that directly from the native Americans who lived there. It
Speaker 1: bore no cross of state religion, no uniform creed, no peace,
Speaker 1: but it bore the name Rhode Island and Providence plantations.
Speaker 1: This was no accident of colonial expansion. Rhode Island was
Speaker 1: founded on purpose, just like Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded
Speaker 1: on purpose by exiles, but a different kind of exile.
Speaker 1: And this the story doesn't begin with war or wealth,
Speaker 1: but with a conflict of conscience. Roger Williams landed in
Speaker 1: Boston in sixteen thirty one. Who's a man already ill
Speaker 1: at eased with the company of conformity, A Cambridge educated
Speaker 1: minister trained in Latin, Hebrew and law. But what made
Speaker 1: him dangerous wasn't all this scholarship. It was his clarity
Speaker 1: of thought. Williams believed that the church must be utterly pure,
Speaker 1: and that the civil state had no authority whatsoever over
Speaker 1: the soul or religion of men. In his view, forcing
Speaker 1: religious practice in any way violated divine will He also
Speaker 1: insisted that the Massachusetts Charter, which claimed land by royal grant,
Speaker 1: was invalid because it had not been purchased by the
Speaker 1: people who were already there by the native peoples. To
Speaker 1: Governor John Winthrop in the General Court. These ideas were nonsense,
Speaker 1: They were intolerable, they were blasphemy, and so in October
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty five, Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Speaker 1: As the warrant was being prepared, Williams slipped away into
Speaker 1: the woods in the dead of winter, sheltered only by
Speaker 1: the nargetissect people that he had tried to defend, whose
Speaker 1: property rights he believed him. Years later, he would remember
Speaker 1: those months in the forest with stark humilie, writing quote,
Speaker 1: I was sorely tossed for fourteen weeks in a bitter
Speaker 1: winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean.
Speaker 1: End quote. In the spring of sixteen thirty six, william
Speaker 1: crossed the Sinkonk River, and with the consent of the
Speaker 1: Nargassett chiefs sachems, he settled on land along the Mushak River,
Speaker 1: in a place that he called Providence, a name that
Speaker 1: he didn't choose for glory, but for grace. This land
Speaker 1: was deeded to him, it hadn't been conquered. Williams proudly recorded, quote,
Speaker 1: I desired to deal justly with the natives and to
Speaker 1: own their title to their lands. And for this cause
Speaker 1: I obtained the grant of Providence end quote. Now, in
Speaker 1: sixteen forty three he sailed back to England to secure
Speaker 1: billated legal recognition of his colony. Now at this time,
Speaker 1: as we'll find out in a couple of episodes down
Speaker 1: the road here, the English Civil War is fully churning.
Speaker 1: It's at this time that Williams also publishes the bloody
Speaker 1: tenant of persecution. There's a defense, rather fierce one of
Speaker 1: liberty of conscience. He would write, amongst other things, quote,
Speaker 1: it is the will and command of God that a
Speaker 1: permission of other men's consciousness be allowed in all nations
Speaker 1: and countries end quote. That same year, Williams secured a
Speaker 1: parliamentary patent, finally uniting all the various cities under his name.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Providence, new Portsmith, Warwick, under the name
Speaker 1: of the Providence Plantations. It was the legal foundation for
Speaker 1: the colony, a fragile document, but one that affirmed their
Speaker 1: right to govern independently of Massachusetts Bay. And they would
Speaker 1: need that source for religious toleration because to the north
Speaker 1: still other people were attesting the bounds of religious conformity
Speaker 1: in New England. That story will be Right after this,
Speaker 1: while Roger Williams had been building providence, Anna Hutchinson was
Speaker 1: electrifying and terrifying Boston. Born Anne Marbury in England in
Speaker 1: fifteen ninety one, she was raised in a household that
Speaker 1: valued biblical inquiry. Her father had been jailed for criticizing
Speaker 1: church authorities. She learned her theology early and completely. In
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty four, she arrived in Massachusetts with her husband
Speaker 1: and children and a storm of ideas. As a midwife
Speaker 1: and lay minister, she began holding spiritual meetings in her home,
Speaker 1: drawing crowds to hear her expound on the sermons of
Speaker 1: John Cotton and to question the spiritual authority of the
Speaker 1: other ministers. She preached what she called, quote unquote, the
Speaker 1: Covenant of Grace, insisting that salvation came through God's will,
Speaker 1: not human effort. The Puritan clergy, she said, had lost
Speaker 1: sight of that, preaching a covenant of works which smacked
Speaker 1: of Catholicism instead. This wasn't just theology, though, this was
Speaker 1: outright rebellion. She was tried in Massachusetts. Her sixteen thirty
Speaker 1: seven trial before the General Court remains a vivid example
Speaker 1: of how dangerous female agency and spiritual independence were to
Speaker 1: Puritan order. She was questioned by Governor Winthrop as follows, quote,
Speaker 1: you have maintained a meeting in assembly, you have joined
Speaker 1: with them in practice. Quote. Hushinson responded, if you please
Speaker 1: to give me leave, I shall give you the ground
Speaker 1: of what I know to be true, which Winthrop asked
Speaker 1: the famous question, say that which you have to say
Speaker 1: in your own defense. Hutchinson's reply echoes down to us
Speaker 1: through the centuries. The Lord knows that I could not
Speaker 1: open scripture. He must buy his prophetical office open it.
Speaker 1: Unto me. She was claiming direct relevation from God. In
Speaker 1: this relevation brought her a quick and swift guilty verdict.
Speaker 1: Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated and banished. In the spring of
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty eight, she and her followers followed a path
Speaker 1: south to Nargace at Bay, where, with advice from Roger Williams,
Speaker 1: they settled on Aquedect Island, then called Rhode Island. They
Speaker 1: purchased land from the local Indians and founded the town
Speaker 1: of Portsmouth. A year later, amid political strife, some left
Speaker 1: to found Newport. By sixteen forty seven, these settlements Providence, Portsmouth, Newport,
Speaker 1: and Warwick formed a united colony under the banner of
Speaker 1: religious freedom and secular governant. Rhode Island's founding charter was
Speaker 1: unlike anything in the English colonies. Drafted in sixteen sixty
Speaker 1: three after a series of earlier patents, it was secured
Speaker 1: by Roger Williams and John Clark, and later granted by
Speaker 1: King Charles the Second. Its language was startling for its time.
Speaker 1: Quote no person within the said Colony shall be in
Speaker 1: any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for
Speaker 1: any differences in opinions in matters of religion end quote.
Speaker 1: This was real religious toleration for the first time in
Speaker 1: the New World. The colony operated with an elected governor
Speaker 1: and a general Assembly, but no state church at all.
Speaker 1: Towns governed themselves and often developed their own codes. Dissent
Speaker 1: was not merely tolerated, it was foundational. In Rhode Island.
Speaker 1: In a letter to John Winthrop Junior, Roger Williams Wright, quote,
Speaker 1: the sovereign original and foundation of civil power lies in
Speaker 1: the people, not in kings or priests end quote. Now
Speaker 1: Rhode Island's economy in the seventeenth century was as unconventional
Speaker 1: as its politics. It was scrappy, marin time, and oftentimes
Speaker 1: just shape. By necessity, Rhode Island didn't have rich farmland
Speaker 1: or a centralized economy like New England. It turned to
Speaker 1: what it had. It had water, timber, and trade. Agriculture
Speaker 1: remained a small scale. The rocky terrain of the mainland
Speaker 1: was poorly suited to large plantations, though Aquineck Island offered
Speaker 1: more fertile ground. Farmers grew corn, rye and beans. Livestock,
Speaker 1: especially cattle and hogs, became key exports to Boston and
Speaker 1: the Caribbean. Shipbuilding and maritime trade soon became the cornerstone
Speaker 1: of Rhode Island's economy. Its long coastline, natural harbors, and
Speaker 1: access to the nargas At Bay made it a haven
Speaker 1: for coastal shipping. By mid century, Newport had become a
Speaker 1: bustling trading with New York, Boston, and the West Indies. Molasses, rum, fish,
Speaker 1: and livestock were common exports. The colony also became notorious
Speaker 1: for its tolerance of irregular trade. Its independence made a
Speaker 1: magnet for merchants, smugglers, and dissenters from elsewhere. Boston Puritans
Speaker 1: often accused Rhode Island of harboring quote heretics and pirates
Speaker 1: end quote, partially true. Land acquisition was also economic. Towns
Speaker 1: often negotiated directly with the Nargacet and wampan Odd leaders.
Speaker 1: While some purchases were fair, others became entangled in disputes.
Speaker 1: The colony's more liberal land policies attracted settlers from Connecticut
Speaker 1: and Massachusetts, heading to its growth and it's friction with
Speaker 1: its neighboring colonies. Labor was mixed. Family farming predominated, but
Speaker 1: indentured servants were common. Slavery, though not as entrenched as
Speaker 1: in the South, did exist, particularly by the end of
Speaker 1: the century as Rhode Island entered the Transatlantic slave trade
Speaker 1: via Newport. Rhode Island was a colony of edges. It
Speaker 1: was on the edge of orthodoxy, the edge of legality,
Speaker 1: and even on the edge of the Atlantic world. Roger
Speaker 1: Williams and Ann Hutchinson did not set out to found
Speaker 1: a new kind of society. They were just driven out
Speaker 1: of the old one. But in their flight they carried
Speaker 1: with them something rare, the belief that truth required liberty,
Speaker 1: and that liberty could survive, even flourish, without uniformity. From exile,
Speaker 1: they built a place where conscience was unchained, where faith
Speaker 1: was free, and where difference difference of opinion was embraced,
Speaker 1: not stamped out. Rhode Island wasn't orderly, wasn't always peaceful,
Speaker 1: but it was principled. Roger Williams would once famously say,
Speaker 1: the greatest crime in the world is to fear a
Speaker 1: man more than to fear God. Hutchinson would saying similar,
Speaker 1: better to be cast out of the church than to
Speaker 1: deny the word of God. And so they were, both
Speaker 1: of them cast out, and in their casting though, they
Speaker 1: laid the foundation for a freedom of conscience that would
Speaker 1: centuries later become part of the soul of a nation.