God, War, and Providence

The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England

By: James A. Warren

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A devout Puritan minister in 17th-century New England, Roger Williams was also a social critic, diplomat, theologian, and politician who fervently believed in tolerance. Banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, Williams purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and laid the foundations for the colony of Rhode Island as a place where Indian and English cultures could flourish side by side, in peace. 

As the 17th century wore on, a steadily deepening antagonism developed between an expansionist, aggressive Puritan culture and an increasingly vulnerable, politically divided Indian population. Indian tribes that had been at the center of the New England communities found themselves shunted off to the margins of the region. By the 1660s, all the major Indian peoples in southern New England had come to accept English authority, either tacitly or explicitly. All, except one: the Narragansetts. 

In God, War, and Providence James A. Warren tells the remarkable and little-known story of the alliance between Roger Williams's Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indians, and how they joined forces to retain their autonomy and their distinctive ways of life against Puritan encroachment.

©2018 James A. Warren (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

The best book so far on Roger Williams

I've read everything I could on Roger Williams, the true father of the religious freedoms we enjoy in this nation. This is now my personal favorite. The author is VERY clear that all we have to go by when learning about this time period is the writings left behind, and those writings can be skewed at times (imagine reading a history of WWII 200 yrs from now written by a Japanese military men DURING the war). He does an excellent job at injecting at times why a certain historical record may not be fully reliable. You get a full history of various Indian tribes living in the area and how they interacted with Roger Williams and with the English. Roger Williams lived his faith while the Puritans seemed to use their faith as a club to subdue those who didn't agree with them. Williams' most enduring spark of brilliance was his unique recognition that God never, outside the unified nation of Israel, demanded that a government enforce the 10 Commandments or create a State religion and demand subjection. He looked back at Judah's time in Babylon and saw that it was the Jews' responsibility to live the life God spelled out, it was the government's job to make sure there was fertile ground for the true religion to flourish. It is impossible to give this man enough credit for his impact on the Founding Fathers' foundation for spelling out the religious freedoms this country was founded on. James Madison referred back to Williams' thinking when he insisted that we have FULL religious freedom rather than merely government "tolerance".

As soon as I was through, I started this book over again.

The Complexity and Diplomacy of early New England

I lived in Rhode Island for twelve years and my wife’s family had been there for over three hundred, and yet James Warren’s book taught me SO MUCH that I thought was long since tied down in the cobwebs of forgetfulness and buried in the dust of history. The book is readable, and, despite the intense complexity it shows us of the competition, division and diplomacy of New England in the 1600’s, would be comprehensible to a High School student today. I believe James Warren’s God, War, and Providence should be required reading for every High School student in Rhode Island.

Best Written Book on the Subject

This book reads like a novel bringing the characters and circumstances to life in a way that keeps the listener engaged and interested, without missing any of the important details and with the reminder that history has been - and remains - open to interpretation. I would recommend this to anyone new to the topic of Williams and the Narragansetts as well as anyone well versed in colonial New England and RI history.

The narrator is excellent. However, some of the Native American place names are mispronounced (at least based on the current local pronunciations like Cocumscussoc). It Is not distracting unless you know the current local pronunciation and will need to translate for context.

Early american history at its finest.

A brilliantly told book that for me at least really made me feel for the Narragansett tribe and other early New England Native Americans. It also made you think how different America could have been if they had prevailed.

A Forgotten Early American Experiment in Tolerance

As a student of history, I've had to read numerous books on King Philip's War and the various themes it sprang from in early New England. That the Puritans were encroaching, haughty, intolerant and hypocritical is undeniable (they flee England due to religious intolerance but then are intolerant themselves of indigenous and non-Puritan Christian practices), but it's also not acknowledged or as easily memorable that not all the Puritan colonies were like that.

Roger Williams is a name that's remembered in American history for his involvement in the founding of Rhode Island and some of his modern views on how a government should be run (separation of church and state being the main issue he got kicked out of Massachusetts). But how did he start a colony when this area was still largely inhabited by various Native American groups? Williams lived among them during various periods of exile, learned their culture and language and earned the trust of many important Native leaders, particularly among the Narragansett. So when he was forced to permanently leave Massachusetts, he chose to settle among the Narragansett in their territory with their permission and with other like-minded settlers who desired "freedom of conscience."

Up until King Philip's War, Rhode Island was actually unique for its easy and trusting relationship with the Narragansett. Williams often served as a diplomatic advisor and interpreter who tried to settle issues fairly, even for those in Massachusetts who banished him. While he didn't agree with Native religious practices, he did find commonality and wisdom that vibed with his Christianity. And unlike the Puritans who dismissed and refused to hear his views, Rhode Island became known for having dissenters of many kinds who wanted to live in a more tolerant society. Rhode Island was also unique because it had a simpler form of government not connected to the church, which was big in those days.

Warren's telling of Williams and his attempt to "experiment" with religious toleration in early America also showed how unfortunately, intolerance, greed and mistrust won out in the end. The Massachusetts Bay Colony's constant need for more land and desire to get the best (read: Native) lands for themselves meant a lot of strife, discord and eventually bloodshed. Rhode Island simply wanted to live separately from Massachusetts, who wanted to control their land and their religious opinions. While the colony charter did bring some security for both the settlers and Natives, it wasn't enough to prevent Massachusetts from attempting to encroach or take things by force.

Warren also points out how the viewpoints of the Narragansetts and the English were conflicting, which led to many misunderstandings and increased likelihood of conflict. The Natives expected the English Puritans to keep their word in treaties and also be honest about their intentions, while the English were eager to use the factionalism of tribes to their advantage, constantly saw treachery and evil in the Natives' activity, especially in the months before King Philip's War broke out, and justified their illegal land grabs by insisting on their religious and political superiority. Even Williams was not completely immune to the idea of English superiority when he argued that indentured servitude was a better option than outright slavery for Natives following the War's conclusion. Unfortunately the mistrust, lies and superiority continued (and still are) issues in U.S.-Native relations today. The roots did begin in New England though, as Warren demonstrates.

I found this fascinating and somewhat encouraging to read. Though you can argue that William's experiment failed in the end since Rhode Island later joined the rest of New England in terms of anti-Native mentality and acceptance, it also showed that peaceful relations between groups was possible and the ideas about government that the Founders would enshrine when they wrote the Constitution were already in practice over a hundred years before. What Williams did was significant and still is significant today and hopefully the lessons learnt will endure.

Super Information

I’ve traced multiple lines of my family back to this time, and this really helped put their lives and movements in context. I really love the details on the relationships with the native tribes. Would have loved more details on Anne Hutchinson and some inclusion of other notable Rhode Islanders who stood up to the Puritans in favor of separation of church and state (3 women I know of: Herodias Gardner, Catherine Marbury Scott, who was Anne Hutchinson’s sister, and 12 year old Mary Stanton, who were all whipped and jailed).

Excellent review of Rhode Island History

My research has led me to read many accounts of early colonial history. This book accurately accounts the history of Rhode Island, it’s colony, the English and Native inhabitants. With a deep dive into Narragansett and Roger Williams the political and historical machinations of Rhode Island are laid out in full. The narrator does a good job at pronunciations and keeping an alluring tone. Worth a read.

Interesting history

I did not know much about Roger Williams or his contributions to colonial life but found the book to be helpful to understand both the thinking of colonial life and the difficulty in having relations with the Indians that were beneficial to both parties. There was a substantial amount in the last few chapters about the many treaties between the colonials and the Indian which revealed a great deal about how each viewed the other one’s ability to keep the promises that they had made. The reader was exceptional.