In 1656, the United Colonies urged the Providence Colony to banish all Quakers from their realm. They replied that “_FREEDOM of Conscience is the ground of our charter, and it shall be maintained_.” In 1658, the United Colonies threatened the Providence Colony with exclusion from all intercourse or trade with all the rest of the colonies, if they did not banish the Quakers. Meanwhile the Bay Colony was unrelenting in its persecution of the Quakers. Some were banished, and a few were put to death. In September, 1658, Cromwell died. His son Richard succeeded him, and after a short time retired. Charles II ascended the English throne in June, 1660. Immediately all acts of the Parliament under Cromwell were repealed, and Providence Plantations lost its charter. The Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies immediately asserted anew their claims for the territory about the Narragansett Bay. Dr. John Clarke, of Newport, was in England representing the claims of the Providence Colony, and, in 1663, secured for it a new royal charter. The old Colony of Providence Plantations ceased to exist. The new colony was called “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” The charter defined the bounds of the colony, gave it freedom in all religious matters, a system of government, a power to organize courts and to enforce their decisions, power to raise a standing army of defense, and other essential things. The new seal of the colony was “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” with an anchor and the word, “Hope,” above it. [Illustration] George Fox Digg’d out of his Burrovves, Or an Offer of DISPUTATION On fourteen _Proposalls_ made this last Summer 1672 (so call’d) unto _G. Fox_ then present on _Rode-Island_ in _New-England_, by _R.W._ As also how (_G. Fox_ slily departing) the Disputation went on being managed three dayes at _Newport_ on _Rode-Island_, and one day at _Providence_, between _John Stubs, John Burnet, and William Edmundson_ on the one part, and _R.W._ on the other. In which many _Quotations_ out of _G. Fox_ & _Ed. Barrowes_ Book in _Folio_ are alleadged. WITH AN APENDIX Of some scores of _G. F._ his simple lame Answers to his Opposites in that Book, quoted and replyed to By R. W. of _Providence_ in N.E. _Roger Williams_ BOSTON Printed by _John Foster_, 1676. [Illustration: Models of Indian Village in Roger Williams Park Museum Courtesy of “Providence Magazine”] The Model of a Southern New England Indian Village Oval House of Birch Bark and Mats Corn-field Women Smoking Fish