Providence Colony (also known as Providence Plantation, modern-day Providence, Rhode Island, USA) was a settlement established in 1636 CE by the Puritan separatist theologian and pastor Roger Williams (l. 1603-1683 CE) after he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Williams objected to a number of policies pursued by Massachusetts Bay, as well as Plymouth Colony, especially the fusion of church and state and those related to Native Americans. He wrote a tract criticizing the policy of taking land from Native Americans without proper compensation c. 1632 CE and paid the asking price of the Narraganset tribe and the Wampanoag Confederacy for the land that became Providence in 1636 CE.
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Definition
Timeline
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1636 - 1638The Pequot War; John Winthrop presides over policy concerning the massacre and enslavement of the Pequot tribe.
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1636Roger Williams establishes the colony of Providence Plantation (later known as Providence, Rhode Island).
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1675 - 1678King Philip's War in which thousands are killed as the Native Americans try to defend their land and way of life from increasing European colonization of the Americas.
