The Story of the Thirteen ColoniesGuerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
History
The Story of the Thirteen Colonies
Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Finding that the Puritans would not let him live in peace in any
part of the colony, but intended to send him back to England to be
tried, Williams secretly escaped from Massachusetts, and went to
live among the Indians. As he knew their language, and had made
friends with them, he spent a very peaceful winter in their camp.
When spring came, Williams wanted to settle at See´konk; but as
the Plymouth people claimed that part of the land, he went farther
still, to a place which he called Prov´i-dence. Settling there, in
1636, on land he bought from the Indians, Williams was soon joined
by others who shared his opinions, and thus a colony was formed in
what is now Rhode Island, where all except Jews were allowed to
vote. This was considered very generous in those days, although it
now seems unfair to exclude anyone on account of religion.
Because Williams was so much broader-minded than many other people
of his time, he has often been called the "Apostle of Toleration"--a
word which means letting others alone, or allowing others to do as
they please. People of every belief came to settle in Williams's
neighborhood before long, and there was soon such a variety of them
that it was said if a man had lost his religion he would be sure to
find it again in Rhode Island.
XXXIV. WILLIAMS AND THE INDIANS.
One of the first important persons who followed Williams to Rhode
Island was Mrs. Anne Hutch´in-son. Soon after her arrival in
Massachusetts, in 1634, she began to hold meetings and to preach.
The Puritans, who did not believe in women's talking in public, told
her to be silent; but she refused to obey, and went on preaching
until she gained great influence over many people.
Indeed, when an Indian war broke out, her followers even refused
to go and fight unless she was allowed to talk just as much as
she pleased. But as soon as the war was over, Mrs. Hutchinson was
banished. Then she, too, went to Rhode Island (1637), where she
bought from the Indians the large island of that name. She gave them
only twenty hoes, ten coats, and forty fathoms of wampum in payment
for it, and near one end of it she began the town which is now the
beautiful city of New´port. Several Quakers, driven out of the
Massachusetts colonies by the Puritans, also came to live near her,
and her settlement prospered greatly.
Other colonies were also begun farther north. A short time after the
founding of Plymouth, Mason and Gor´ges received from the king a
grant of land. Coming over to America, they divided their land and
founded colonies, Gorges in Maine and Mason in New Hamp´shire. Among
the principal settlements thus made were the towns of Ports´moŭth
and Dover. Some years later, however, these places were added to
Massachusetts, to which colony New Hampshire was joined for about
thirty-five years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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