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Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts in 1635 for arguing that civil go
1635 Event

October 9

Roger Williams Banished from Massachusetts: He'll Found Rhode Island

Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts in 1635 for arguing that civil government had no authority over individual conscience and that colonists had no right to Native land without purchasing it. The General Court ordered him deported to England. He fled into a blizzard instead, surviving 14 weeks in the wilderness with help from Wampanoag and Narragansett friends. He founded Providence on land he bought from the Narragansett. Massachusetts spent the next 200 years becoming what Williams said it should've been.

October 9, 1635

391 years ago

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