Roger Williams and the Puritans
[1599-1683]
For years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth (1620) their
number grew so slowly that by 1630 the population was only three
hundred. After that year they began to increase more rapidly, by reason
of neighboring settlements made by the Puritans at various places on the
Massachusetts coast.
We have already seen that the Puritans in England were dissatisfied with
the English Church, and that they wished to purify some of its forms and
beliefs. But they did not succeed in their purpose because the Stuart
Kings of England, James I. and Charles I., bitterly opposed the Puritan
movement. For a long time the Puritans held their meetings secretly in
such out-of-the-way places as private houses and barns. At length,
encouraged by the success of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, they decided to
leave their homes in old England and try to form a new England across
the Atlantic.
These Puritans were not, like the Pilgrims, poor men of little
influence, for some of them had been educated at Oxford or Cambridge,
some were wealthy, and some were connected with distinguished families.
All were of sterling character, ready to undergo hardship for the sake
of their religion.
In 1628, therefore, some of the leading Puritans formed a trading
company and, having bought a tract of land in America from the Plymouth
Company, sent out settlers to occupy it. The first settlement was at
Salem with Endicott as leader. Two years later eleven vessels sailed
with nearly 1,000 Puritans, bringing with them horses, cattle, and
stores of various kinds. They located at Boston, Dorchester,
Charlestown, and other towns near Boston. John Winthrop, their leader,
was the first governor.
Each of these settlements constituted a township, which usually included
an area of from forty to sixty square miles. Within this tract settlers
lived in villages, in the centre of which stood their meeting-house,
used not only for a place of worship but for all kinds of public
meetings. Near the meeting-house stood the block-house. This was a rude,
strongly built structure, where the people of the village could take
refuge in case of attack from Indians.
Extending through each village was a long street, and on either side of
it stood the settlers' dwellings with their small farms stretching back
in the rear. These dwellings, which in early years were only log huts,
afterward gave place to high-roofed frame houses. All were simple,
solid, and neat.
[Illustration: Roger Williams on his Way to Visit the Chief of the
Narragansett Indians.]
Upon entering one of these early Puritan homes we should find two
principal rooms, the "best room" and the kitchen. In the kitchen the
thing of special interest to us would be the fireplace, large enough for
a back-log five or six feet long and two or three feet thick. In this
great fireplace a Puritan housewife could roast an entire sheep. As
stoves were unknown in these olden days, all cooking was done at this
open fire, and it was by such firesides that the Puritan boys and girls
used to spend the long winter evenings. While the logs blazed the mother
and daughters would knit, or spin, or quilt, and the father would read
his Bible or smoke his pipe. At this family hearth there was also much
good cheer in cider-drinking, nut-cracking, and story-telling,
especially when the family was fortunate enough to have a stranger
present as a guest. At such times the children were always good
listeners.
[Illustration: Block House]
But much as it was prized, a visit from a stranger was a rare
occurrence, for as there were no carriages or public conveyances of any
kind, long journeys were seldom made. When travelling by land the
settlers sometimes went on foot and sometimes on horseback. In the
latter case the men sat in front and the women on a pillion behind. For
carrying supplies, sleds were used in winter and ox-carts in summer.
Since travel was so difficult, there was very little communication
between distant villages unless they happened to touch upon the sea. But
frequently this was not the case, for many of the settlements, following
the courses of rivers, extended inland rather than along the coast.
When a stranger did appear, however, he was always welcome, for he was
sure to bring some bit of news from the world outside. Perhaps, if he
had travelled through the woods, he might tell of some dangerous
adventure with wild beasts or Indians. If in midwinter he dared to make
the journey, he might tell how he spent a cold night in some deserted
wigwam, into which he had been driven by howling wolves. Such thrilling
chapters from the book of every-day life were of special interest to
people whose experience was very narrow and monotonous. For in those
days there were no newspapers and few books.
We should make a great mistake, however, were we to imagine that the
Puritans did not value books and reading. They appreciated reading and
education so much that every town was required to have a school. As a
consequence of this excellent system, there were very few people who
could not read and write.
[Illustration: Roger Williams's Meeting-House.]
The study of the Bible was an important feature in all this school
training, and absorbed much of the thought of the Puritan mind,
especially on the Sabbath. The Puritan Sabbath, which began at sunset on
Saturday and ended at sunset on Sunday, was largely given up to church
worship. All work and travel, not absolutely necessary, were suspended,
and no playing on a musical instrument was allowed. Two instances will
illustrate the severity of the Puritan ideas of Sabbath observation. The
first is that of two lovers, who were brought to trial because they
were seen sitting together on the Lord's Day under an apple-tree. The
second tells us of a Boston sea-captain who was put into the public
stocks for two hours because he kissed his wife on the Sabbath Day upon
the doorsteps of his house. He had just returned after a two years'
absence on a sea-voyage.
In all this strictness about Sabbath observance, the Puritans were
wholly sincere. To them purity of religion was the supreme interest of
life. They had left their old homes in England that they might worship
according to their own belief in a community under the control of
Puritan ideas.
But it was no easy matter for them to arrange the affairs of Church and
State just as they wished, even in this new Puritan commonwealth. For
they found some of the settlers unwilling to believe and act in
accordance with Puritan ideas of right and wrong.
One of these troublesome persons was a young man who came with his bride
to Salem in 1631. This young man was Roger Williams. He was born in
England in 1599. An Englishman of influence secured for the clever lad a
scholarship in the Charter-House school, from which young Roger later
went to Cambridge University. Having become a Puritan, Roger Williams,
like so many others of his faith, found it wise to leave England. He
came to America in order that he might escape religious persecution and
enjoy religious freedom.
On reaching New England he went to Salem, and was there appointed a
minister of the church. After a very short time he left Salem, and went
with his family to Plymouth. Remaining there for two years, he became
deeply interested in the Indians, and began the difficult task of
learning their language. He wrote afterward, "God was pleased to give me
a painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy, smoky
holes to gain their tongue."
In this way he acquired a good knowledge of the Indians, whom he learned
to love and who learned to love him. Little did he realize that this
warm friendship would in after years save not only his own life but also
the lives of many other Puritans.
[Illustration: A Puritan Fireplace.]
While winning the friendship of the Indians, Roger Williams incensed the
Puritans by saying in strong language that they had no just claim to the
lands they were living on. He said that the King had no right to grant
to any company these lands, because they had never belonged to him. The
Indians, and only the Indians, owned them. It is needless to say that
such arguments made many bitter enemies for the youthful preacher.
Of course he could not continue in this severe criticism of matters so
important to the Puritan heart without losing many of his friends. The
wrath of the Puritans at length became so great that they tried him in
court and banished him from Massachusetts. As he became ill about this
time, however, he was told that he might remain in the colony through
the winter if he would not preach. But as soon as he grew better his
friends, who were very fond of him, began to spend much time in talking
with him at his home in Salem, where he now lived. The Puritans, fearing
his influence, determined to send him at once to England.
[Illustration: The Rhode Island Settlement.]
When the heroic young minister heard of this, he hastily said good-by to
his wife and two children--one of whom was a little girl two years old
and the other a baby--and looked for safety in the home of his old
friend Massasoit, living near Mount Hope, seventy or eighty miles away.
The outlook was dreary enough. It was midwinter (January, 1636), and the
snow was lying deep upon the ground. As there was no road cut through
the forest, Roger Williams had to depend upon his compass for a guide.
To keep himself from freezing, he carried with him a hatchet to chop
kindling wood, and a flint and steel to kindle it into flame. Thus
fitted out, he started, though still weak from his recent illness, with
a staff in his hand and a pack on his back, to look for his dusky
friend, Massasoit. This long journey in the bitter weather of a New
England winter was indeed a trying experience to the lonely traveller.
He wrote long afterward, "Steering my course, in winter snow, I was
sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks in a bitter winter season, not
knowing what bed or bread did mean." Having found Massasoit, he spent
much of the winter in the wigwam kindly furnished him by the Indian
chief.
In the spring he began to erect buildings at Seekonk on land given him
by the Indians. But his friend, Governor Winthrop, having secretly sent
him word that Seekonk was in the territory belonging to the
Massachusetts colony, he decided to go elsewhere.
Accordingly, he and five of his friends rowed down the river and,
landing at a place pointed out by the Indians as having a spring of good
water, made a settlement, which they called Providence, in token of
God's watchful care over them. This was the beginning of Rhode Island, a
colony where all men, whatever their religious belief might be, were
welcome. Men who had been persecuted elsewhere on account of their
religion were glad to go to Rhode Island, where they were allowed to
worship as they pleased. And thus it soon grew to be a prosperous
settlement.
Roger Williams was a man of pure and noble soul. He did not seem to bear
any grudge against the people of Massachusetts. For when, in 1637, the
Pequots tried to get the Narragansett Indians to join them in a general
uprising against the whites, and especially against those living in
Massachusetts, he did all he could to frustrate their plans. At this
time he set out one stormy day in his canoe to visit Canonicus, chief of
the Narragansetts, and succeeded, at the risk of his life, in preventing
the union of the two tribes against the whites.
He died in 1683 at the age of eighty-four years. Although his judgment
was not always wise, his motives were upright. In his struggle with the
Puritans he was ahead of his age, which was not yet ready for such
advanced ideas of religious toleration.
REVIEW OUTLINE
SMALL NUMBER OF PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH.
THE PURITANS DECIDE TO GO TO AMERICA.
THEY ARE PEOPLE OF INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND.
THE PURITAN SETTLERS IN MASSACHUSETTS.
THE NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE.
THE MEETING-HOUSE; THE BLOCK-HOUSE; THE GREAT FIREPLACE.
MODES OF TRAVEL.
THE STRANGER WELCOMED.
EDUCATION.
PURITAN IDEAS OF SABBATH OBSERVANCE AND RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
ROGER WILLIAMS COMES TO NEW ENGLAND.
HE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE INDIANS.
HE MAKES PURITAN ENEMIES.
THE PURITANS BANISH ROGER WILLIAMS.
HE ESCAPES IN MIDWINTER.
A LONELY JOURNEY THROUGH THE FOREST.
ROGER WILLIAMS MAKES A SETTLEMENT AT PROVIDENCE.
HE PREVENTS THE NARRAGANSETTS FROM JOINING THE PEQUOTS IN THEIR WAR.
DEATH OF ROGER WILLIAMS.
TO THE PUPIL
1. Picture to yourself the New England village; also the big
fire-place with the Puritan family gathered about the blazing
fire at night.
2. What do you admire in Roger Williams? How did he make many
Puritan enemies?
3. Write an account of his midwinter journey through the woods.
4. Tell how he befriended the people of Massachusetts at the
outbreak of the Pequot War.
5. How did the people of Providence feel about religious freedom?