What Cheer; Or, Roger Williams in Banishment: A PoemDurfee, Job
History
What Cheer; Or, Roger Williams in Banishment: A Poem
Durfee, Job
Williams, Roger, 1604?-1683 -- Poetry
as aforesaid_, I do acknowledge this said sum a full satisfaction,’
he went on, in full and strong terms, to confirm those lands to said
inhabitants, reserving no more to himself that an equal share with the
rest; his wife also signing the deed.”
APPENDIX.
Having in the preceding notes given some account of the principal
events which marked the life of Williams up to the time he settled at
Mooshausick, it may be agreeable to such of my readers, as have not
his biography at hand, to find here some notice of the actions which
distinguished the remainder of his days. The following summary is drawn
chiefly from Mr. Benedict’s History of the Baptists, and the Sketch of
the Life of Williams annexed to the first volume of the Rhode Island
Historical Collections.
Williams was soon joined at Providence by a number of his friends from
Salem. In a short time their number amounted to forty persons. They
then adopted a form of government, by which they admitted none to
become their associates, but such as held to the principle of Religious
Freedom.
The year following his settlement, a formidable conspiracy of the
Indians was planned against the English colonists. He gave his
persecutors information of the fact. He addressed a letter to the
Commissioners of the United Colonies, “assuring them that the country
would suddenly be all on fire, meaning by war--that by strong reasons
and arguments he could convince any man thereof that was of another
mind--that the Narragansets had been with the plantations combined with
Providence, and had solemnly settled a neutrality with them, which
fully shewed their counsels and resolutions for war.”[24] Had this plot
been carried into effect, it would probably have eventuated in the ruin
of the colonies from which he had been banished. Instead of indulging
resentment by remaining inactive, he immediately exerted himself to
bring about a dissolution of the Indian confederacy. He accomplished
what no other man in New England at that time would have attempted.
By his influence with the Narragansets, he broke up the combination,
and formed treaties between them and the United Colonies, by which the
latter had their aid in the war which followed with the Pequots.
[24] _Hutchinson’s State Papers._
The first four years that succeeded Williams’ settlement at Providence,
were necessarily occupied by him there about the affairs of the
plantations. He travelled amongst the Indians, and secured the
friendship of their chiefs and warriors. He promoted the settlement
of Rhode Island and Warwick. Much of his time must also have been
required in making provisions for the support of his family, cast out,
as they were, into the depths of a savage wilderness. Soon after his
settlement, he had embraced the leading tenets of the Baptists, and had
been baptized. He then formed a society of this order, and preached to
it; but resigned his pastoral office on his going to England to solicit
the first Charter.
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