USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. III > Part 6
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business expedition to Block Island, quickly brought matters to a head, and when the rumor prevailed that the Pequots were trying to enter into a secret alliance with the Narragansetts and the Niantic tribes, a troop of two hundred men from Boston and adjoining towns was raised and placed under command of Colonel John Endicott and Lieutenant Colonel John Winthrop, Jr., to make war upon the tribe. This Bay expedition under command of Endicott set out in three vessels for Block Island where the English attacked the native inhabitants, killing fourteen and wounding many others. The wigwams were burned, canoes destroyed and the corn supplies ruined; thus the murder of John Oldham stood avenged. The next stop for the avenging expedition was at Saybrook near the mouth of the Connecticut where the Pequots were attacked in spite of the advice of Captain Gardener who com- manded the fort there. Then they journeyed back along the Sound to the mouth of the Thames River, New London, where Endicott attacked the native villages, killed many of the Indians, and burned their wigwams. The next day the village on the east bank of the river was treated in the same manner. Fourteen natives were killed, forty wounded, and not a white man was lost.
There may have been reason for the actions of the English on Block Island but there certainly was no justification for the wholesale meting out of punish- ment along the Connecticut coast, and the Governor of Plymouth Colony remon- strated with the Massachusetts Bay government for needlessly provoking a war. As might be expected, Endicott's actions angered the entire Pequot nation and it was not long before the defenseless inhabitants of Connecticut were subjects of vicious revenge since the Pequots plotted retaliation on all English Colonists wherever found. Sassacus, the chief sachem, quickly attempted to form a union of all tribes for the destruction of all settlers in New England. His plan included the alliance of the Mohawks, the Nipmucks and the Narragansetts, which would increase his fighting forces to at least eight thousand men. If successful,
this alliance of warriors, most of them veteran fighters, and experienced in both the native and the white man's methods of carrying on warfare, would undoubtedly mean the end of all English settlements in New England.
On the shores of Narragansett Bay was a tiny settlement called Providence, established in the name of religious liberty by Roger Williams and a few companions in 1636. One man, and one man alone, banished by his countrymen stood be- tween them and certain death. He alone cherished the confidence and respect of Canonicus and Miantonomi, who would make the final decision whether or not the Narragansetts were to join with the Pequots and others in the plan of complete extermination of the whites.
Roger Williams was at once appealed to by the Governor of the Bay Colony to intercede with Canonicus to prevent his alliance with Sassacus. Mr. Williams, realizing the seriousness of the situation, hastily journeyed in a frail canoe to the wigwam of Canonicus where he found the Pequot chief already arguing for the plan of alliance and the immediate overthrow of the whites, sparing none. It took three days and nights for Roger Williams to accomplish his purpose, all the while in danger of his life, since he was a white man pleading for the safety of white men, whereas Sassacus, an Indian, was pleading for unity and loyalty in the Indian tribes as against the whites. Then and even now, it appears that it was a hopeless task for a lone man of another race to be victorious in such an issue, but Roger Williams, with the might of his argu- mentative powers and with the back- ground of genuine friendship for the red men, did win the alliance of the powerful Narragansett tribe to the side of the Eng- lish colonists. Miantonomi and the two sons of Canonicus were induced to go to Boston, where a treaty of alliance and peace was made between the Colony and the Narragansetts, leaving the belligerent Pequots to fight their battle alone.
Finding that they must then fight unaided, Sassacus led his Pequots in a campaign of murder and destruction. Colonial troops from Massachusetts and Connecticut, reinforced by Indian volun-
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teers from friendly tribes, planned an attack on the Pequot fort near the present village of Mystic, Connecticut. The battle on May 26, 1637, proved to be a complete victory for the whites - more than 500 native men, women and children were slain, and only a few escaped. Sassacus was killed later among the Mohawks and the scattering remnants of the tribe disappeared from this section of New England.
Although the white military leaders won everlasting renown for their gallantry in action, it was really Roger Williams who made the great achievement in the war. For nearly forty years thereafter the Colonists lived in peaceful relations with the native tribes, and the ancient trail leading from Providence to New York, still called "The Pequot Trail," reminds us of a very precarious period in early Colonial history.
PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS
S INCE this volume of historical accounts has been designed to cover, rather completely, the earliest days of Provi- dence and facts pertaining to the entire area that later became the State of Rhode Island, subject matter will not be limited to the lives of certain outstanding indi- viduals and to points closely related to political development. Primarily, this book is intended to give the present generation a clear picture of what these lands looked like three hundred years ago, of the people who lived here then; how our ancestors lived their lives and how they met conditions quite unlike those with which we are familiar. After all, history should be written as a narrative of human experience and the intimate details of social development are as important as the chronological arrange- ment of events and discussions of their relation to each other. Because most history teaching requires study of lengthy spans of time to be completed within a comparatively brief period, students gen- erally fail to absorb the vital details of man's history and, as a result, acquire nothing more than a sketchy review of high spots, punctuated with a few dates and a hazy assortment of biographical facts.
Therefore, as this Rhode Island narra- tive develops it will contain from time to time word pictures of life and times in these Plantations in the hope that many will thereby gain a clearer knowledge of social conditions while they are organizing
in their minds the proper sequence of political episodes. And to that end, let us once again look in upon Roger Williams and his few associates who settled three hundred years ago on the shores near the head of the Great Salt River as they called the head of Narragansett Bay in the immediate vicinity of what is now the center of Providence. The houses and the layout of the original community were described in detail in a previous episode, but there are other facts about these pioneers and the home of their adoption that should interest us. For example, the first drinking water came from the spring located near the landing place of Williams, and perhaps from other springs in the vicinity. Following this primitive com- munity practice of fetching water for household use from natural springs, a few wells were dug, not within the enclosures of private property, but on the Towne Street, and the water supply from these wells was free to all. At first, one of these public wells supplied several houses in a neighborhood group, later, there was a long row of wells, one in front of every second or third house. Street traffic was no problem in those days, so these ob- stacles were the cause of no complaint. One hundred years passed before it was necessary to secure permission to dig a well, or to set up a pump to replace the original well curb. At this point it might be well to refer to a few of the families that knew these conditions concerning which we are interested in making obser-
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vations. And these references will indi- cate street name origins, and at the same time localize certain points of historic interest.
The Towne Street followed the course of present North and South Main Streets from Fox Point to Constitution Hill, and at the Fox Point end were the dwellings of the Tillinghast, Wickenden and Power families. The name Power was given to one of the very first streets, and at the beginning of the last century the name Wickenden was commemorated in a like manner by the successors to the original Wickenden estate. A Tillinghast memo- rial monument stands on the Barker Playhouse land, at lower Benefit Street, on the original site of the Tillinghast family burial ground. To the south of the main office of the Providence Institution for Savings were the home-lots of the Fields, prosperous farmers and for a long period among the chief landholders of the town. The northernmost Field estate on the Towne Street was the site of the Garrison House or block house during the Indian wars. This was one of the largest structures of the first century of Provi- dence history and served as a strong fortification for the townsmen - they fortified themselves in this wooden strong- hold located on or very near the present site of the " Old Stone Bank " and success- fully prevented the Indians from burning the town forty years after the founding of Providence. College Hill marks the site of the Chad Brown homestead; Thomas Street, just to the north of the First Baptist Meeting House, was the original home site of the Angell family. Just north of the Angell house was the dwelling place of Thomas Olney, successor to Roger Williams. John Throckmorton and Joshua Verin were next-door neighbors to Williams whose home-lot extended east and west parallel with all the other lots, and, of course, most everyone knows that the Williams lot was in the immediate vicinity of St. John's Cathedral on North Main Street. A few paces to the north of the ancient St. John's churchyard lived Richard Scot, one of the first Quaker converts and a bitter enemy of Roger Williams, in spite of the fact that the two were neighbors. On the same
Scot estate lived William and Mary Dyer, the latter journeying from there back to Boston where she was hanged for Quaker- ism. Near present Olney Street lived Gregory Dexter who contributed his full share to the controversies of the day. A little farther on was Shadrach Manton, the town clerk, who recorded for preserva- tion much of the town's early historical documents.
Each home-lot had its dwelling place with a narrow lawn before the house, fronting on Towne Street. As soon as the settlers began to accumulate herds of cattle, barns were set up a little to the east of the row of houses. The eastern slope of the hill, approaching the Highway, which was nothing more than an eastern boundary line of the home-lots that extended as far as the present line of Hope Street, furnished the pasture lands, with brooks, meadows and well-watered fields. That particular area can be localized by such present street names as Prospect, Brown, Thayer, and Brook. Most of the original home-lots had orchards half-way up the western slope of the hill, and closer to the dwelling places were the family burial plots. In the very near neighborhood of present Benefit Street the resting places of the founders and their children were ranged in long succes- sion. There, from one end of the com- munity to the other lay the earlier generations of Dexters, Williams, Olneys, Watermans, Angells, Browns, Crawfords, Powers, Tillinghasts and other illustrious patriarchs of three centuries back. The remains of the founder and Mrs. Williams were interred in the family plot just east of Benefit Street near Bowen Street at the rear of the beautiful Dorr mansion. In 1860, the remains of Roger Williams were taken up and placed in the Stephen Randall tomb in the North Burial Ground for safekeeping and they remained there until a few years ago when they were transferred to the receiving vault of the same historic cemetery. These remains are now safely deposited in a bronze box which has been removed to the special crypt provided for the purpose in the Roger Williams Memorial on Prospect Terrace in Providence.
Now for a moment let us consider the
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breadwinning activities of these and other families who were the first to come and remain. At first the settlers were well- armed, but as their fowling pieces (bell- muzzled guns) wore out, they could not be repaired as there was a scarcity of mechanical skill, and new fire-arms could not be purchased because there was a scarcity of capital. Therefore, it became necessary to hunt with bows and arrows and the children were taught the use of these primitive weapons. Fishing was carried on in a simple way by individuals for home use, and there was no real development of that activity as an in- dustry, whereas fishing laid the founda- tions of the wealth of Boston. The principal activity was agriculture which seems to have been the first step wherever men have gone into the wilderness, there to create for themselves homes, sus- tenance and civilized order. The first settlers of Providence were practically all engaged in farming and in the raising of cattle and their efforts were crowned with early success in spite of their lack of tools, implements and capital.
During the first years, the voyages and excursions of the settlers were not ex- tended farther than between Towne Street and certain points around the headwaters of the Bay. And as the highways in those days were mere bridle paths through the woods, boats and canoes furnished the speediest forms of transportation. The crude craft belonging to the settlers lay along the beach in front of Towne Street; a man either fastened his canoe or his boat to stakes or iron rings or he beached it high and dry in front of his dwelling. Roger Williams is believed to have journeyed by water to his trading post later established near present Wickford,
for, on one of his business trips, his canoe was overturned, his goods lost and he narrowly escaped with his life. There was little need for wharves then, for Massa- chusetts merchants and occasionally Dutch traders were depended upon for the sources of all manufactured articles, and they had or could purchase but few of these.
Days were spent in the fields or in some activity that would improve living con- ditions. Perhaps, in the cool of the eve- ning, some of these pioneers would sit in front of their dwellings and smoke their pipes while they contemplated the results of their endeavors and mused upon what the future held in store. They may have visioned in their mind's eye the great thriving city that was destined to grow and expand upon the marshy lands on the opposite shore, but little did they realize that they were a vital part of an immortal experiment that was the direct forerunner of the establishment of the first true democracy. They were probably more concerned with the outcome of their next harvest, with the discouraging attitude of their bitter Massachusetts enemies, with the dangerous prospect of an Indian war or with the clouds of mosquitoes that arose from the marshes on the shoreline across the way, from the very area that is now the heart of downtown Providence.
At any rate, these are just a few of the sidelights upon life and times immediately after the coming to these shores by Roger Williams. Such items as these rarely appear in the ordinary history books although a satisfactory comprehension of the evolution of a people is impossible unless some intimate details are included with the highlights, and most of the high- lights treat of political development.
ANNE HUTCHINSON
ÎN any fairly complete review of the Rhode Island narrative, one of the first individuals to draw the spotlight of attention from Roger Williams, once the Providence settlement was established, we find to be a woman, a woman of re- markable vision, power and spirit, and
also the mother of fourteen children. Her name was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, probably the first American champion of women's rights, and probably the first of her sex to challenge openly the inherited authorities, privileges and prerogatives of the so-called "stronger" sex. Her life
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story is interesting; certain of her ideas concerning spiritual matters are difficult to interpret, but she influenced events and their turnings not only in Rhode Island but in the infant nation during the very beginnings of American history.
Anne Marbury was born in England at some time during the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it is generally agreed that the date of her birth was in the neighborhood of 1594, when religious controversies were approaching their height in that troubled nation. Her father was a Puritan minister, preaching both in Lincolnshire and in London. Her mother was a sister of Sir Edward Dryden, father of the poet, and Anne was said to have enjoyed every advantage of education and culture that the time afforded. While she was still a child, Queen Elizabeth died and James I became the King. King James desired most intensely "An ordered and obedient Church, its synods that met at the royal will, its courts that carried out the royal ordinances, its bishops that held themselves to be royal officers." The Puritans disputed this royal policy of making men obey the word of the crown in matters both civil and spiritual, but their objections availed little except con- tinued and more severe persecution.
At an early age Anne Marbury married William Hutchinson, described as "a very honest, peaceable man of good estate" and later referred to by Governor Win- throp as "a man of a very mild temper and weak parts, and wholly guided by his wife." During the last few years that Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson spent in England, Anne must have been well aware of the fact that people all about her were engaged in a relentless struggle for their rights against the Crown. Everywhere people were studying the Bible, pondering over its meanings, rebelling against the arbitrary dictates of the Bishops. Since her father was a Puritan clergyman, she probably shared his sorrow over the persecution of her friend, the Reverend John Cotton, and this incident in her life may have aroused her indignation to the point where she resolved to leave England and follow Cotton across the ocean to the new world where she and her family could continue to benefit by his teachings.
At any rate, she left England with her husband and a large brood of children in 1634 and made the crossing to Boston on the ship "Griffin," and it has been recorded that the family fortune brought along to America amounted to nearly one thousand guineas in gold.
Until the new Hutchinson home could be built in Boston, Anne and some of her many children found shelter in the home of her beloved idol, the Reverend John Cotton, and for the three years that the family remained in Boston the homestead was directly across the street from that of John Winthrop and soon the Hutchinson fireside became "the social center of the town." Anne proved to be not only a capable, energetic and amiable person, but also an efficient nurse. As she went from home to home on errands of mercy, she would talk with the young women unto whom she ministered, and gradually won their complete affection and respect. In fact, both men and women welcomed her intellectual and magnetic personality, for she had a vigorous mind, dauntless courage and a natural gift for leadership.
To what did such unusual attributes in a woman in those days lead ? To trouble of course, since not even the men dared to question authority or to speak their own minds when it came to matters of religion and personal liberty. And this is how it all started. Three hundred years ago in Boston the women of that community participated fully in the long, very long Sunday religious services, and they also might be present at the Saturday evening services. Naturally the women mingled with the numerous assemblies for con- stituting churches, for ordaining ministers and elders, but there were certain meet- ings for religious discourse from which they were excluded. Whether she resented this occasional exclusion of her sex, or whether she was prompted by a desire to supply a deficiency, Anne Hutchinson instituted a series of meetings for members of her own sex. This novel enterprise of hers met with favor rather than with disapprobation, at first. As many as one hundred women would attend these meetings, and for a period she held two each week. The nominal purpose of these meetings was for the review and inter-
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pretation of the sermons delivered by Mr. Cotton on Sunday, and at his usual Thursday lecture. It can be rightfully claimed that, through her leadership of this group, Anne Hutchinson thereby became the first organizer of the earliest women's club in the world. How long it was before these meetings invited criticism from many of the clergy and civil officials, is not certain, but, certainly, by the end of the first two years of Mrs. Hutchinson's abode in Boston, she was being severely regarded as an instigator of strife and dissension.
And she found herself in trouble with the authorities not because she was the organizer of special meetings for the women of the community, but because she took advantage of these periodic gather- ings to expound some very peculiar and decidedly seditious doctrines for the times. Rather difficult to comprehend in this enlightened age, these ideas had consid- erable justification when they are con- sidered in the light of what is actually known about Puritans and their customs. Using simple terms, Anne Hutchinson preached that it was not necessary to look holy in order to hold deep religious feel- ings. Or, even in plainer terms, she exhorted her followers to justify them- selves before God through their hearts, minds and works, and she openly con- demned those who were content to seek salvation through pious expressions, grave and reverend bearing, sombre dress and other outward forms of religious manifes- tation. Inward sanctification she called "The Covenant of Grace," outward sanc- tification, "The Covenant of Works." Anne Hutchinson continued to place con- siderable force upon the prime necessity of adopting the Covenant of Grace, besides, she finally singled out those clergymen in the Colony who advocated this Covenant and those who did not advocate it. The ministers whom she criticised, directly or indirectly, were much offended. Trouble was brewing for Anne Hutchinson from many sources in spite of the fact that her sympathizers and ardent supporters rap- idly increased in numbers, and all the while she continued to preach, condemn, de- nounce and upbraid those in authority who failed to recognize the rights of individual
man. From her privately conceived Cove- nant of Works she went on to preach that all classes of people - clergy and laity, the rich and poor, the educated and unedu- cated - stood as equals before the law with rights as to life, liberty and justice, unabridged, except as forfeited by crime or lost by incompetency.
Soon the doctrines of this apostle brought official denunciation upon her head. She was tried by a court of the church and condemned for her obnoxious pronouncements, and she was next sum- moned before the supreme civil tribunal, at which, however, the most eminent of the clergy were present, and appear to have taken a very active part as witnesses and advisers. This general court of Massachusetts met on November 2, 1637; her sentence of excommunication was followed by one of banishment, and on March 28, 1638, Anne Hutchinson and her husband and approximately eighteen persons from Boston who sympathized with her - besides the members of her own family - departed for that haven for all souls distressed for conscience's sake, Rhode Island, and here the party was graciously welcomed by the first advocate of human rights in America, the first champion of free speech, Roger Williams.
In Providence, Mrs. Hutchinson drew around her a goodly number of people, including Quakers and Baptists, and these listened to her discourses with great interest. Later the ministers of the Bay Colony dispatched three of their members to Providence to inform the exiles that if they would recant all belief in the Cove- nant of Grace they could return. Anne met these emissaries in a kindly manner; the conference lasted two days and then the three departed, reporting their mission hopeless. Roger Williams liked Mrs. Hutchinson and was much in sympathy with her although he did not adopt all of her views. He thought that in view of her great usefulness as a nurse and neighbor she should be allowed to speak when she chose and say what she wished. "Be- cause," as he said, "if it be a lie it will die, and if it be truth, we ought to know it."
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