2-329-831 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Roger Williams in the forest, America, c1630s (c1880). Roger Williams (1603-1683) was an English theologian left for the American colonies in 1630 due to his differences with the established church in England. His religious beliefs brought him into conflict with some of the other colonists and he was exiled from Salem, Massachusetts in 1635. Together with a number of others, he acquired some land from the natives in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1643 was granted a charter for the colony there by the English Parliament. Providence became a haven for members of groups persecuted by the Puritans, including Baptists, Qakers and Jews. In 1652 it became the first colony in America to draft a law outlawing slavery. A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume I, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, c1880.