Freedom: A History of US. Webisode 3: Liberty for All? Segment 2

Authored by thirteen.org and submitted by Goosekilla1

The tiny Plymouth Colony soon heard reports from England that were not good. Under the new king, Charles I, things were even worse for the religious dissidents—who called themselves "Puritans." They hoped to "purify" the Church of England. But the king wouldn't let them. So between 1630 and 1640, 20,000 Puritans sailed for New England . They wanted to practice their religion in peace. They wanted to build a holy community where people would live by the rules of the Bible. They expected their Massachusetts Bay Colony to be an example for all the world. One of the colony's governors, John Winthrop , explained: "We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." The Puritans were seeking freedom, but they didn't understand the idea of toleration. They came to America to find religious freedom—but only for themselves. They had little tolerance or even respect for the Pequot Indians, who lived in nearby Connecticut and Rhode Island. They called them heathens. As more and more Puritan settlers moved into their land, the Pequots got angry and resisted. In 1637 war broke out, and the Puritans, helped by Mohican and Narraganset Indian allies, massacred 600 Pequots in their fort, burning many alive. William Bradford, who was there, wrote, "It was a fearful sight to see them � frying in the fire � but the victory seemed � sweet � over so proud � an enemy." Ministers like the Reverend John Cotton preached that it was wrong to practice any religion other than Puritanism. Those who did would be helping the devil. They believed they followed the only true religion so everyone should be forced to worship as they did. "[Tolerance is] liberty � to tell lies in the name of the Lord," said John Cotton. But one Puritan minister named Roger Williams disagreed. He said, "Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils." Roger Williams didn't believe in forcing others to believe as he did. He thought that killing or punishing in the name of Christianity was sinful. He respected the beliefs of others, including the Native Americans. He said that church members should pay the bills for their church instead of taking the money out of everyone's general taxes. Then he started preaching that land shouldn't be forcibly taken from the Indians. He said, "[It is] against the testimony of Christ Jesus for the civil state to impose upon the souls of the people a religion�. Jesus never called for the sword of steel to help the sword of spirit ." Those were strange ideas in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. Williams was arrested and banished. He fled south, bought land from the Indians, and started a colony called Providence . It would become the capital of Rhode Island . In Roger Williams's time it attracted many who were not wanted elsewhere, especially those who were searching for "freedom of conscience"—the freedom to believe and worship as they wished. Williams welcomed everyone, Quakers and Catholics, Jews and atheists, even when he disagreed with their religion. Centuries later, a biographer named Edmund Morgan wrote this about Williams's ideas: "We may praise him � for his defense of liberty and the separation of church and state. He deserves the tribute � but it falls short of the man. His greatness was simpler. He dared to think."

In 1763, thanks to the atmosphere of tolerance that Roger Williams fostered, Rhode Island became the home of the first permanent Jewish house of worship in America, the Touro Synagogue. You can still see it today.

Did you know that Freedom is adapted from the award-winning Oxford University Press multi-volume book series, A History of US by Joy Hakim?

Hostile1810 on June 6th, 2020 at 01:21 UTC »

Meanwhile Roger Williams was expelled by the Puritans because he actually did believe in religious freedom.

He founded Rhode Island.

keith_richards_liver on June 6th, 2020 at 01:20 UTC »

Are there any misconceptions about the Puritans? Even in public schools the Puritans are always the bad guys in the Salem Witch Trials, The Scarlet Letter...

Even the word "puritanical" is pejorative today

Infernalism on June 6th, 2020 at 00:59 UTC »

They wanted the religious freedom to shit on every other religion.