Rhode+Island

= **R**hode **I**sland = Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams. He was among the group of people who believed in freedom of worship.
 * **When was the colony founded and by whom/what group? **

Rhode Island was founded for the purpose of religious freedom. It was designed to be open to people of all religions fleeing the strict Puritan values of other colonies.
 * Why was the colony founded? **

The first settlement was called Providence.
 * What was the name of the first settlement? **

Rhode Island mainly did general farming and shipbuilding.
 * What was its major economic activity? **

Providence is currently the capital.
 * What is its present-day capital? **

Rhode Island was a charter colony, meaning that a charter was given to the colonists (specifically, Roger Williams). The colony was ruled by a governor that the colonists themselves elected, instead of the king.
 * What kind of colony was it? **

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 * **Roger Williams - A Short Biography **

Son of a merchant tailor, educated at Cambridge,In 1630 he left his post as chaplain to Sir William Masham, to pursue his by-then completely Nonconformist religious ideals in New England. Arriving in Boston in 1631, Williams refused to associate himself with the Anglican Puritans. In the following year he moved to the separatist Plymouth Colony. In 1633 he was back in Salem after a disagreement with Plymouth, in which he insisted that the king’s patent was invalid and that only direct purchase from the Indians gave a just title to the land. He was invited by the church at Salem to become pastor in 1634, Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay by the civil authorities for his dangerous views: besides those on land rights, he held that magistrates had no right to interfere in matters of religion. Consequently, in January 1636 Williams set out in the spring, and on land purchased from the Narragansett Indians, he founded the town of Providence and the colony of Rhode Island. The town of Providence became a haven for Anabaptists, Quakers, and others whose beliefs were denied public expression, like his were. He was briefly an Anabaptist but in 1639 declared himself a Seeker. He remained a steadfast believer in Calvinist theology. Williams went to England in 1643 to obtain a charter for Rhode Island and again in 1651–54 to have it confirmed, during which visit he became a friend of the poet, John Milton. He was the first president of Rhode Island under its charter and until his death always held some public office. He was of constant service to Rhode Island and neighboring colonies as a peacemaker with the Narragansett Indians, whose language he knew and whose trust he had earned, although he helped defend Rhode Island against them during King Philip’s War (1675–76). From 1636 until his death he supported himself by farming and trading.Williams was a vigorous controversialist and a prolific writer. His greatest work was The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644). ||  ||

<span style="color: #808080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">"Chapter II: The Colonial Era." //Rhode Island History.// State of Rhode Island General Assembly, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2011. Behling, Sam. //Roger Williams//. Rootsweb, 1997. Web. 11 Feb. 2011. <http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/roger.html>.