USA > Rhode Island > Early Rhode Island; a social history of the people > Part 3
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We could not fully comprehend the historic founda- tions of Rhode Island, without considering the relative bearing of the neighboring governments. We would sub- mit that Massachusetts is set forth as an absolute theoc- racy. Connecticut starting under a theocratic impulse, limited that form of rule by the first practical democracy in representative action the world had known. Rhode Island after turbulent struggles and contention, was brought by her charters into civic life, based on soul- liberty and protected by the crown. This new form of democracy, the achievement of men freed from every form of absolutism-whether ecclesiastical or feudal-lived unto itself, and now attracts the attention of the civilized world.
Roger Williams stands out in these studies, larger and more heroic as time goes on. He did not create or invent soul-liberty. The great impulses of humanity spring forth as the occasion ripens, and seldom can be wholly at- tributed to any one man. But some one man gives ef- fective life to each and every one of them. Primitive men could conceive of a hero only in a demigod. We find the man in history heroic, who had the courage to enforce a great principle. Williams could brave power and place, in his assured conviction that his soul was bound to its Creator, by ties that neither law nor custom, neither priest nor magistrate should any longer control.
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Foundations of Rhode Island
Williams was not skillful or wise in politics. He was a good man of business in his private affairs. Mr. Dorr comments on this, as we know that he was so poor in the first home on Towne street, that Winslow, visiting them, gave Mrs. Williams a gold piece. He did not profit by selling lands to the first settlers, but he acquired in trade an independent property. He sold his trading house at Wickford to get funds to pay his expenses in London, while procuring the charter. So, he was ready always to sacrifice himself for the community. But in developing a state out of turbulent, democratic town-meetings, in dis- putes with Harris and others, he was not able to separate . the body politic from his own communistic bent, or the vagaries of his individual will.
The little community of the plantation appreciated him according to its own fashion and circumstance. He was buried with military honors, and his fellow soldiers of the Indian war fired a volley over his grave. Yet there were no inscriptions over this grave for three generations.
Thomas Durfee states that " historians urge that he was eccentric, pugnacious, persistent, troublesome. Un- doubtedly he was." With all his failings he was the trusted and beloved friend of Winthrop, the best of the Puritans. His nature was large enough to recognize in the Governor of the Bay " that excellent spirit of wisdom and prudence wherewith the father of lights hath endued you." Urquhart could say47 " he did approve himself a man of such discretion and inimitably sanctified parts that an archangel from heaven could not have shown more goodness and less ostentation." This might indicate a defective man; but not a worthless man even by the stan- dards of Massachusetts Bay.
Whatever the limitations of his personality, whatever 47 Ante, p. 6.
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1636]
The Greater Roger Williams
petty ordinances and powers of state the rulers of Salem might bring against him, in historic perspective these facts and proceedings fade like rushlights in the rays of the sun. He was driven from home and the body politic for conscience's sake. In this sublime offering of him- self on the altar of conscience, he made the principle sacred and appealed to the hearts of men. No longer a mere disputant in theology, he became a heroic leader of men. The founder of Rhode Island becomes greater in history as the principle he embodied spreads its in- fluence far and wide in the world's development.
CHAPTER II
PLANTING IN PROVIDENCE. 1636-1647.
IN the spring or early summer of 1686, Roger Williams I with his five companions, William Harris, John Smith (miller), Joshua Verin, Thomas Angell and Francis Wickes, pushed out a canoe from the east side of the See- konk, crossed into the cove southwestward, and landed upon "the Slate Rock." An Indian on the hill above saluted them " What Cheer, Netop!" It was a signifi- cant and potential welcome. The peaceful and numerous Narragansetts under the judicious direction of Canonicus and Miantinomi had refused the passionate appeals of warlike Sassacus and his Pequots to join in a confederated effort to expel the English. The native on his own shore spoke in effect for the great Narragansett people; as the friend of his sachems, and these exiles from Puritan civilization, approached this new territory. Continuing around the peninsula and Fox's Hill-which will after appear in surveyor's lines and boundary-disputes-these six voyagers paddled up "the great salt river." The land fall was made near the mouth of the Moshassuck, just below the site of the present St. John's church, where a fine spring of water tempted them to found the first plantation, which the devout Williams named Providence.
Williams located his house across the way from the spring, and immigrants from Plymouth and the Massa- chusetts Bay soon joined the planters. In the year 1638,1 twelve proprietors received from Roger Williams, in con-
1 The dates are somewhat confusing, as proceedings of the town sometimes preceded the formal conveyance.
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The " Initial " Purchase
1638]
sideration of £30. for his expenses, all the lands deeded to him by Canonicus and Miantinomi. These lands upon the Moshassuck and Seekonk, and on the Woonasquetucket southward to the Pawtuxet, had been obtained in gift from the sachems; though there had been nominal considera- tion, the transaction was something that "monies could not do." Williams, when pressed by the planters to part with his title and convey to the first proprietors, consented, intending a shelter for " persons distressed for conscience." By conveyance he made " proprietors " of the twelve as- sociates and " such others as the major part of us shall admit into the same fellowship of vote with us." This "initial deed " was reinforced by documents in 1661 and 1666 intended to amplify and secure the title. The thir- teen proprietors, for convenience, divided their territory into the "grand purchase of Providence" and the "Pawtuxet purchase." This division according to Judge Staples2 caused much difficulty and dissension. The vague boundaries of the deeds and the equally vague conceptions of rights of grantees and qualifications of subsequent purchasing proprietors alike confused the issues- whether fiscal or political-and agitated the town-meet- ings of Providence for half a century or more. Williams, pure in intention, was poorly equipped for politics. Con- science and will worked together in complex personality ; until a controversy became polemic or fancied inspiraton, as the occasion prompted. Like many reformers, he con- ceived that the " freed " citizen and upright believer should be benefited not only in his conscience, but in his financial conditions.
The first record of a town-meeting is intensely interest- ing, for these steps and fossil tracks were in the noble
2 " Annals of Prov.," p. 34.
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Planting in Providence
path of soul-liberty. "16 die. 4 month 3 the year not given, after warning to attend towne-meeting," " whoever be wanting, above one quarter of an hower after ye time " was to pay two shillings fine, and the same for departing without leave. The other entry provides for electing a town treasurer monthly ; two significant facts that, they met each month and kept a close grasp on the public purse.
This was doubtless in 1637, as will appear below from more important proceedings. In the beginning, " masters of families " had met fortnightly to consult " about our common peace, watch and planting," choosing also an " officer " to call these meetings. But in the first year, several young men admitted "inhabitants," yet discon- tented politically, sought equal representation and free- dom of voting. This shows a variance between family organization and freedom for the individual to act under the state. Williams prepared a "double subscription," + one for masters of families, the other a sort of indenture for young men, admitted as "inhabitants." These in- cidents are most interesting, as throwing light on the next procedure; a momentous step and degree in the world's progress toward individual freedom.
Aug. 20, 1637, the " second comers," thirteen in num- ber, subscribed to the following " civil compact." Thomas Harris (brother of William), Benedict Arnold, Richard Scott, Chad Brown and John Field were included among the signers. This document has been interpreted fre- quently as a special instrument to admit " young men." But there was more conveyed in the procedure than such purpose would account for. Richard Scott, John Field, Chad Brown, Thomas Angell, Thomas Harris, Wm. Wick-
3 " Early Records Town of Providence," VI., 2.
4 Cf. " Narr. Club Pub.," V., VI., 3.
Ve who's names are hir.
prowiEnce inca o promise to public In actie or perfuer obedience. so
fuck orders or agreEmente Thalt for publick gold of of cook top
made by for maior confut. The Intrabitante maybey of families Je WEther mite a towns for how hips others who me they than Din't only ne civile things
RHODE ISLAND'S MAGNA CHARTA. Here occur the words, "Only in Civil Things."
i
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"Only in Civil Things "
1637]
enden, as well as others, were in no sense " young men." They were among the most responsible settlers. Wil- liams had even conceived, though it came to nought, as shown in his letter to Winthrop, a " double subscription," one for masters of families, one for young men. These thirteen signers were " second comers," and the adoption of our famous Magna Charta indicates that it was an evolution from the actual proceedings of the previous gov- ernment. Whether these proceedings were based on a written agreement we do not know. Certainly in their actual experience they worked away from the Judaic con- ceptions prevailing at the Island. Witness below the "Saints of the most High " embodied in the Code of Laws. Providence developed out of this and put civic government on every-day living, squarely down on the foundation of " civil things."
" We, whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agree- ments as shall be made for the public good of our body in an orderly way, by the major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated together into a town fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto them, only in civil things."5 The positive matter of this compact differed not from the Mayflower compact and numerous other Anglo-Saxon conventions. The limi- tation "only " marks the new development outward and upward. That order in civil government could be 6 organ- ized in material form, leaving each individual free in his conscience before his own Heavenly Father, was a discov- ery for human intelligence, an invention in governmental procedure.
5 " Early Records," Vol. I., 1.
6 " Narr. Club Pub.," Vol. VI., 3.
1
£
1
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Planting in Providence
No property qualifications were directly instituted, but divisions of land went with most early proceedings of the " proprietors." At first, fifty-four settlers received " home lots," a six-acre lot and additional tracts of meadow land. The home-lots of five acres ran in narrow strips from the " Towne Streete 7 (now North and South Main) to the present Hope Street, and the six-acre lots were in the southerly part of "Providence Neck," bor- dering on the Seekonk, or upon the Woonasquetucket River.
The government was the simplest form of democracy, and it could not last long. All functions were lodged in the town-meeting; for which a quorum was not easy and difficult to manage, when it was assembled. In 1640, the freemen tried to institute a choice of five men, arbitrators or " disposers," to " be betrusted with disposals of land and also of the town's stock and all general things." A town clerk was to be chosen, who should call the disposers together every month, and call quarterly town-meetings. Former grants of land were to be valid. Mark this espe- cial provision as " formerly hath been the liberties of the town, so still to hold forth liberty of conscience."
This might mitigate some ills, but it created others, for the executive force of the disposers was almost fruit- less. Roger Williams' pungent pen put it " our peace was like the peace of a man who hath the tertian ague." Dis- order and in one instance bloodshed occurred. The oppo- sition of Samuel Gorton and his fellows prompted thirteen colonists to appeal to Massachusetts Bay for intervention.
7 This name was not local or fortuitous-rather, it reverted to old English custom dear to the hearts of these wayfarers. Just as in Boston Sewall notes " the house that was sometimes Sr. Henry Vanes' bounded with the Towne Street on the East."-" Mass. H. C.," Sewall, VI., p. 59.
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Domestic Discord
1636]
The reply called for absolute submission of the plantation to the Bay or to Plymouth. Though Winthrop confessed to a sneaking fondness " for an outlet into the Narra- gansett Bay," and forcible intervention was afterward attempted at Warwick, no practical change was effected in the external affairs of the Plantation. But this move- ment of the Pawtuxet men aggravated the internal dis- cord for many years.
While the socio-political structures were being forged out, a serious rift in the lute had been made by a cer- tain domestic discord. Joshua Verin, an original com- panion, had his backyard next and adjoining Roger Wil- liams'; whence the good Verin dame found it easy, too easy, to flit across to hear the prophet's sermons and exhorta- tions. Mr. Dorr suggests that the Verin stew-pot suf- fered in the too frequent spiritual aberrations of the house- wife. However it might be, Verin's soul could not stomach wifely absence, and more disobedience, for he forbade her attending the meetings.8 Winthrop, our sole authority, re- joicing in these practical restraints of liberty of conscience, with "grim humor " dilates on the proceedings of the Prov- idence council before the " disposers " attempted adminis- tration. The motion to censure Verin would virtually establish that "men's wives, and children and servants could claim liberty to go to all religious meetings, though never so often, or though private, upon the week days." In the debate " there stood up one Arnold, a witty man of their own Company, and withstood it, telling them that when 'he consented to that order, he never intended it should extend to the breach of any ordinance of God, such as the subjection of wives to their husbands,' etc., and gave divers solid reasons against it. Then one Greene replied ' that if they should restrain their wives, etc., all the 8 " History of N. E.," VI., 283.
.
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Planting in Providence
women in the country would cry out of them, etc.' Arnold answered him thus: 'Did you pretend to leave the Massa- chusetts because you would not offend God to please men, and would you now break an ordinance and command of God to please women?'" Arnold was a vigorous con- testant and he claimed that the desire to be gadding was not prompted altogether by the woman's conscience; that Williams and others persuaded her. Arnold was of the " Pawtuxet men," and these bickerings indicate the early differences which were to harass the Plantation most seriously. Roger Williams' influence appears in the final action, which condemned Verin, May 21, 1638.9 " It was agreed that Joshua Verin, upon the breach of a covenant for restraining of the libertie of conscience, shall be with- held from the libertie of voting till he shall declare the contrarie." He soon left Providence. Much has been written, to make of this affair a state question, but to little purpose. The " woman question " inevitably leaves unsolved elements in a political situation-whether the time be of Solomon, of the seventeenth century, or of the all-confident twentieth century.
We are neglecting the local habitation, which made possible these domestic and social doings. The " Towne Streete" wavering in outline, as it went up the valley toward Constitution Hill, was in its name, according to Mr. Dorr's sympathetic analysis, one of the earliest Eng-
9 It is proper to consider Williams' account and his view of Verin, as given in a letter to Winthrop, "Narr. Club,' V., VI., 95, " He hath refused to hear the word with us (which we molested him. not for this twelvemonth), so because he could not draw his wife, a gracious, modest woman, to the same ungodliness with him, he hath trodden her underfoot tyrannically and brutishly; which she and we long bearing, though with his furious blows she went in danger of her life, at the last the major vote of us discard him from our civil freedom, or disfranchise."
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Characteristics of Towne Streete
1638]
lish traditions accepted by the roving community gather- ing around Williams. Home-lots along this thoroughfare were laid out by John Throckmorton, of the original thir- teen, Chad Brown, who came from England in 1636, and was to be a pastor of First Baptist Church and ancestor of " the Four Brothers " in the eighteenth century, with Gregory Dexter, who appears as town clerk in 1651, and became President of the Assembly in 1653. There were five-acre lots appropriated to settlers along the way; a narrow front with area stretching up the hillside and eastward. Each settler persisted until he got his quota. Thomas Olney, Jr., had his " house lot or home-share " made up in 1661. The " Spring Lot" was retained by the proprietors until July 3, 1721, when it was decded to Gabriel Bernon.
1784694
Opposite lived Williams, and he held religious meetings in his house, as we have noted. Above were Verin and Richard Scott, below was John Throckmorton. Accord- ing to Dorr, one of the strongest of this disputing neigh- borhood was Gregory Dexter, who dwelt up the hill at the turn of Dexter's Lane, now Olney Street. William and Mary Dyre settled at Portsmouth, but removed to Providence. Ultimately the martyr went from Towne Streete to meet her doom on Boston Common.
On the irregular lines of this street, houses were built hastily, and generally of logs, the yards closely adjoining. A narrow strip of green separated the dwelling from pass- ing traffic. The homesteads crept up the sloping side and unyielding grades of the ridge, which made the penin- sular conformation of the early plantation. Barns shel- tered the cattle for a generation and orchards soon gave plenty of fruit for the clustering families. Above and often in the orchard preserves, burial grounds soon at- tached the planter yet more closely to his homestead, where
٠٠
.
٣
5
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Planting in Providence
the individual literally stood and lived, as never before in the history of the citizen. Along the middle of the hillside, the patriarchs of the plantation were laid at rest, and these particular personal burying grounds could not be disturbed by any communal or social wants for a full century. On the plateau above, home-lot pastures stretched over to a highway (the modern Hope Street) called Ferry Lane, after Red Bridge was opened across the Seekonk River.
And we perceive here the meaning of the English term plantation, as it developed under the necessities of vary- ing colonies. The settlers did not merely drop seeds in the ground. They planted institutions in germ, which grew into communities at Plymouth, Boston, Hartford and elsewhere, as the occasion made new citizens in new homes. The close affinities cultivated in the Plantation at Providence were powerful in affording stay and sup- port for a new religious life. Likewise, this close and in- tense method of living bred certain difficulties of its own, as we shall see when social and political life expanded.
After the home, a church was instituted, though the apostles of the Bay had assured themselves no Christian society could exist in a government based on " civil things." The particular steps in organizing this church have been matter of dispute. Winthrop's account 10 that Richard Scott's wife, a sister of Anne Hutchinson, influ- enced Roger Williams to become an Anabaptist, has been criticised. Williams was baptized by Holyman,11 and then baptized a dozen communicants. He remained as leader only three or four months, leaving the organization to become a "Seeker." By some accounts he was a
10 Brigham, " Rhode Island," p. 38.
11 Cf. Carpenter, " Roger Williams," p. 164, for Holyman and Anabaptists.
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1638]
First Baptist Church
Seeker before he left England, though he kept member- ship in the Congregational church at Salem before his banishment. Whatever the detailed steps may have been, certainly the First Baptist Church was formed about the end of the year 1638, attended to worship and Christian culture, without meddling with civil government, and be- came a thriving influence in the community. That it sur- vived the defection of the powerful Roger Williams proves that it met the positive wants of its members.
We should now consider a matter-the beginning of disputes-which will vex the colony for more than two- score years. Said Williams, "W. Harris and the first twelve of Providence were restless for Pawtuxet." In 1638 all the meadow ground at Pawtuxet had been " im- propriated unto thirteen persons being now incorporate into our town of Providence," a consideration of £20 being paid to Roger Williams. Uncertain and without bounda- ries, this deed bred many controversies, not finally set- tled until 1712. The "Pawtuxet purchase " conflicted with the " grand purchase of Providence." Notwith- standing the rebuff from the Bay cited above, William and Benedict Arnold, Carpenter and others resident at Paw- tuxet submitted to the government of Massachusetts. Samuel Gorton and his companions considered that this movement affected them, and they moved to Shawomet, buying land from the Indians and settling Warwick.
The plantation as it grew consisted of proprietors, additional settlers, and those admitted to be freemen. Nineteenth of eleventh month, 1645,12 twenty-eight per- sons received " a free grant of twenty-five acres of land apiece, with the right of commoning according to the said proportion of lands." They agreed in positive terms " not to claim any right to the purchase of the said plan- 12 " Early Records," Vol. II., 29.
Mu c
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Planting in Providence
tations, nor any privilege of vote in town affairs until we shall be received as freemen."
Irritant and counter-irritant Samuel Gorton appeared in Providence, probably in the winter of 1640-41. We shall treat him in connection with Portsmouth and the Island. We must consider him now in the early troubles of the Plantation. Poor Williams wrote Winthrop, " Mr. Gorton, having foully abused high and low at Aquidneck, is now bewitching and madding poor Providence some few and myself do withstand his inhabitation and town privileges." Wm. Arnold was also opposed to ad- mitting Gorton. With his followers Gorton removed to Pawtuxet, where they built houses and cultivated the land. Massachusetts, availing of every pretext to obtain a foot- hold in Narragansett Bay, now accepted the submission of the Pawtuxet men. Gorton made a vigorous protest, and would acknowledge only "the government of Old England." In their favorite scriptural invective, he fully equalled the Bay parsons, but they could rejoin by calling his arguments "blasphemies." A more effective argu- ment was put forth through the sword of the state. Mas- sachusetts sent an armed force and there was bloodshed. Gorton and his companions were taken to Boston and to the common jail. Carried to meeting on the Sabbath, he was indulged after service in a theological discussion with Cotton. They chopped metaphysics to their mutual de- light. The tyrannical court had caught a Tartar. They thought Gorton ought to die, but did not dare to kill him. They made a curious sentence for dispersion of the culprits " into several towns " with "irons upon one leg," etc. This wonderful product of the Bay civilization may be best comprehended in the terms of the candid Savage, a descendant of these same Puritans. "Silence might perhaps become the commentator on this lamentable delusion ; for this narrative almost defies the power of
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Samuel Gorton's Exploits
1643]
comment to enhance or mitigate the injustice of our gov- ernment." 13 The prisoners were actually sent around into different towns, but the ingenious magistrates at last discovered that they had sapiently arranged for the pris- oners to " corrupt some of our people by their heresies." The bolts were filed off, and the authorities got rid of the offenders against the inspired government of the Bay, as they might.
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