a digital library of Unitarian Universalist biographies, history, books, and media
the digital library of Unitarian Universalism
Home » Biographies » Williams, Roger (1603-1683)

Williams, Roger (1603-1683)

Harvard Square Library exists solely on the basis of donations.  If you have benefitted from any of our materials, and/or if making Unitarian Universalist intellectual heritage materials widely available and free is a value to you, please donate whatever you can–every little bit helps: Donate 

Roger Williams

Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-94043).

The founder of Rhode Island was fiercely persecuted by William Laud, the Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury. Williams and his wife sailed to Massachusetts Bay in 1631, he becoming minister of the church in Salem. His persistent disagreements led the General Court to banish him from the colony. Williams escaped deportation by traveling during a blizzard to a place he named Providence, where a lively experiment in religious freedom led Rhode Islanders to establish what Williams considered appropriate relations between church and state.