Roger Williams was born and schooled in England, but came to America to join the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Williams had continual conflicts with the church in Boston, as well as the church in Salem. Eventually, he was exiled from the colony because of these conflicts. Williams then founded his own colony with the help of local Indians and the permission of English Government. He called his settlement Providence, and established it as a safe haven for all religions in America.

Williams saw his settlement through many hard times, but made sure it remained a safe location for Jews, Quakers, and others. His own personal religious beliefs transferred from those of a Puritan, to a Baptist, to a seeker: one who professes no specific religious practices.

"God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.”