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Researching The Laws Of The Colony Of Rhode Island And Providence Plantations, Gail I. Winson

Law Faculty Scholarship

Roger Williams is generally recognized as the founder of Rhode Island. Although his settlement of Providence in 1636 was not the first or only settlement in the area, he was able to open the whole region to English settlement. Due to his friendship with local Indians and knowledge of their language he obtained land from the Indians and assisted other settlers in doing the same. When Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 because of his rejection of Puritanism, his friend, Governor John Winthrop, suggested that he start a new settlement at Narragansett Bay. Founders of other …