The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience

by Alan E. Johnson

Roger Williams, a deeply religious minister in seventeenth-century New England, revolutionized thinking about the role government should play in religion. Banished from Massachusetts for his controversial views, he founded the Town of Providence on the basis of full liberty of conscience and total separation of church and state. These radical ideas were adopted by the Colony of Providence Plantations, which later became known as the Colony and then State of Rhode Island. Williams also insisted, contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy, that Europeans could acquire American land only through voluntary transactions with Native Americans.

This is the story of the dramatic life, thought, and work of a man who refused to accept the conventional wisdom of his time and who forged a new way of thinking that came to characterize the best in the American tradition.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, Historical

662 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2015

About the author

Alan E. Johnson, an independent philosopher, historian, political scientist, and legal scholar, is the author of Free Will and Human Life, Reason and Human Ethics, Reason and Human Government (forthcoming), The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and Proposed Constitutional and Statutory Changes for Direct Popular Vote, 2nd ed., The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, and other publications in the fields of ethical and political philosophy, history, and constitutional law. He holds an A.B. (Political Science) and A.M. (Humanities) from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He retired in 2012 from a long career as an attorney in which he focused mainly, though not exclusively, on constitutional and public law litigation. For further information, see his post here.

Reviews

[Matt McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated Alan's book not only for the understanding I gained of this early American philosopher but also for the obvious passion and tenacity that went into the book's creation. I can't imagine how much time, thought and objective analysis went into its development.

The story of Roger Williams (whose name I cannot ever remember hearing) becomes more salient every day. His uncompromising courage in thought coupled with his humanity made him unique in his time and would make him even more so in ours. Williams completed the circle by arguing how secular society benefits from the bifurcation of religion and government but why religion itself equally benefits.

As an avowed anti-theist**,** I have no problem saying that Williams was exactly the kind of theist I would want as a neighbor. He held his views of the existence of a deity and its particular proclivities and positions sincerely but would have allowed me my contrary views

[Kevin Padula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Especially loved how he showed how the ideas Roger Williams shared about religious freedom and the separation of church and state were shared, albeit perhaps only indirectly, with the founding fathers. Also, I always thought Roger Williams was a believer of democracy his entire life, however Johnson’s explains why Providence was more of an oligarchy at first, not a democracy.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent

[Alan Johnson]

As I am the author of this book, I am not rating it. I have posted my description of the book on the Goodreads and Amazon pages for it. Excerpts from the book can be located on Academia.edu (https://chicago.academia.edu/AlanJohn... and https://www.academia.edu/103480220/Ro...).

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

We don't know American history as well as we think we do. Not many Americans have even heard of Roger Williams, an Englishman who in 1631 immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay colony with the second wave of Puritans. We learn about the rest of the Puritans in school, but much of what we learn is misleading. Williams' insistence upon complete religious freedom and his unfailing sense of fairness toward Native Americans were not shared by most of his fellow colonists.

The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience is a masterwork of scholarship. Author Alan Johnson has reviewed all of the original seventeenth century sources available and created an enlightening and entertaining account of the life and work of this unusual man. He explains in detail what is known of Williams' early life in England, his education and influences, his activism in Massachusetts Bay, his exile into the wilderness, his understanding of Native American culture and language, his founding of Providence (the only English colony dedicated to complete freedom of conscience), and finally his influence on his contemporaries in England and down through the generations to the American Founding Fathers.

The book is packed with interesting tidbits from the era, including many of Williams' own colorful quotes. There is an extensive appendix with in-depth information of interest to scholars.

Everyone with any interest in colonial American history and the issue of freedom of conscience will benefit by reading this book. Odds are that you will learn something.

In the interest of full disclosure, the author is my husband, but my opinion would be the same regardless of who wrote it. It is shameful the way our history has been distorted, and we need publications like this that set the record straight.