Roger Williams

author

Roger Williams

d. 1683

A fierce early defender of religious liberty, this English-born minister and writer helped shape the idea that civil government and matters of conscience should remain separate. His books and letters still stand out for their moral urgency, plain force, and unusual sympathy toward Native peoples.

3 Audiobooks

A Key Into the Language of America, or an Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New-England Together with Briefe Observations of the Customes, Manners, and Worships, &c. of the Aforesaid Natives, etc.

A Key Into the Language of America, or an Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New-England Together with Briefe Observations of the Customes, Manners, and Worships, &c. of the Aforesaid Natives, etc.

by Roger Williams

Experiments of Spiritual Life & Health, and Their Preservatives In Which the Weakest Child of God May Get Assurance of His Spirituall Life and Blessednesse Etc.

Experiments of Spiritual Life & Health, and Their Preservatives In Which the Weakest Child of God May Get Assurance of His Spirituall Life and Blessednesse Etc.

by Roger Williams

The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered

The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered

by Roger Williams

About the author

Born in London around 1603, Roger Williams studied at Cambridge before leaving for New England in the early 1630s. He quickly became a controversial voice among the Puritan colonies, arguing that church and state should not control one another and that colonists should deal justly with Native Americans. After being banished from Massachusetts Bay, he founded Providence, which became part of Rhode Island.

Williams wrote as a preacher, polemicist, and observer of colonial life. His best-known works include A Key into the Language of America, drawn from his close contact with the Narragansett people, and The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, a powerful defense of liberty of conscience. His writing is vivid and argumentative, but also deeply practical, shaped by the urgent political and religious struggles of his time.

Remembered as a founder of Rhode Island and a pioneering advocate of religious freedom, Williams remains an important figure in early American thought. He died in Providence in March 1683, leaving behind a body of work that connects faith, politics, language, and everyday human dignity.