Rhode Island History (1630) from The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (Amerisearch, 2009):
<Roger Williams was granted a tract of land by the Narragansett Indian Chiefs, Canonicus and Miantonmoh. He proceeded to found the Colony of Providence Plantation and began the First Baptist Church in America.
Roger Williams, a Puritan minister, had fled England six years earlier on December 1, 1630, as he believed the Anglican government of the King should not control the church. He later fled the Colony of Massachusetts in 1635, as he believed the Puritan government of the Massachusetts' General Court should not control the church.
In 1639, Rev. John Clarke was driven out of Puritan Massachusetts and founded Newport, Rhode Island, where he began the second Baptist Church in America.
These settlements were combined by Charles II in the Charter of 1663 to become the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation.
The colony was predominately Baptist, and as such, believed conversion and genuine religion should be voluntary from the inside out, not forced by the government from the outside in.
John Clarke wrote: "No such believer, or servant of Christ Jesus, has any liberty, much less authority from his Lord, to smite his fellow servant, nor yet with outward force, or arm of flesh, to constrain or restrain his Conscience."
Roger Williams wrote: "In holding an enforced uniformity of religion in a civil state, we must necessarily disclaim our desires and hopes of the Jews' conversion to Christ."
Rhode Island was unique among the colonies in allowing complete religious freedom.
In 1658, Jewish immigrants Mordecai Campanal and Moses Pacheco arrived in Rhode Island, from Barbados. Soon 15 families relocated there, and by the American Revolution the Jewish community of Newport Rhode Island had grown to over 30 families.
Congregation Yeshuat Israel was formed in 1702, and its first leader was Isaac Touro. In 1763, Touro Synagogue was dedicated in Newport. It is the oldest standing permanent Jewish House of Worship in North America.
In 1739 there were 33 Churches in the colony: 12 Baptist, 10 Quaker, 6 Congregational or Presbyterian, and 5 Episcopalian.
In 1680, there was not one Catholic in the colony, but a hundred years later, a 1777 map of Newport, Rhode Island, published in London, showed houses of worship for Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, Jews and Catholics.
In 1828 there were less than 1,000 Catholics in the state. Bishop Fenwick of Boston assigned Rev. Robert Woodley to a "parish" which included the entire State of Rhode Island. Father Woodley purchased a building in Newport to use for a Church and school.
In 1829, a Catholic Church was built in Pawtucket. In 1830, Rev. John Corry built a Catholic Church in Taunton. The first Catholic Church in Providence was built in 1837.
In 1844, the Catholic Diocese of Hartford was created which included Rhode Island and Connecticut. There were only six priests in the two states.
After the 1846 Irish potato famine, Irish Catholic immigrants increased to the largest segment of the population.
Following the Civil War, the growing cotton industry drew large numbers of Canadian Catholics. Later Catholics immigrated from Italy, Poland, Portugal, Armenia and Syria.> 1630RI001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1630RI001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Rhode Island History, beginning in 1630, from The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (Amerisearch, Inc., 2009).