Summary Of Roger Williams Letter To The Town Of Providence

In 1655, founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams documented his views on politics and religious affairs to make them clear to the public. This documentation of his morals and principals was called Letter to the Town of Providence. In his letter he addresses the people and tells them that he is making no mistake by voicing his opinion. Williams takes his position with an analogy. He describes society as a boat. On that boat there are many people and these people are practicing different faiths. It’s his highest belief that liberty of conscience must kept while on this boat. For this to happen two things are very important, that no one be forced to practice another faith and no one is forced to stop practicing their own. Following that, he responds that even with religious freedom he doesn’t mean people should break the law. In his position he states that people should still be punished for going against the law, “…the commander or commanders may judge, resist, compel

His past is a clear outline of why he wrote it. First, he was raised as Anglican and grew up watching Puritans being prosecuted against for their faith. Second, he has proven to be extremely intelligent by going to prestigious schools. While at these schools he first handedly studied and saw religious corruption that caused him to change his religious title. Third, he met important political people along way who help form his opinions like Oliver Cromwell, who helped him further to change. Forth, Williams references a boat of religious people trying to obtain religious freedom, he took a boat full of religious people trying to obtain religious freedom to get to the colonies, a connection made on digitalcrowsnest.wordpress.com. Or maybe he while in school he the great philosophers and is calling out Plato’s analogy for society, “‘Suppose the following to be the state of affairs on board ship