![]() ![]() A Key into the Language of America, excerpt (1643) Moreover, A Key’s multigeneric composition – as a translation, historical document, ethnographic study, and a coalescing of both poetry and prose – proves time and time again that Williams produced an integral, underrated piece of early American literature and socio-political advocacy. This idea that Europeans were equal to the indigenous people was radical for Williams’s time and incited a backlash against him. In addition, he challenged the assumptions that the crown was entitled to a right to claim Indian land. For example, Williams adamantly professes that Europeans and Indians are equal and of the same blood (this is further complicated by Williams’s invocation of his own Christian God to justify this equality). This was due to the fact that A Key was as much of a ‘Rosetta Stone’ as it was a work of denouncement towards the Puritans’ perceived superiority relative to the indigenous people. Although Williams’s work garnered much attention, it also provoked and jeopardized a deeply ingrained European/Judeo-Christian train of thought and way of life, especially within Williams’s own Puritan communities. Williams had primarily focused on translating words within the lexicon of the Narragansett tribe which, after the absorption of many of those words into English vernacular, are still used today: moose, squash, and quahog are only a few. It was published in both New England and, across the Atlantic, in London by Williams’s friend Gregory Dexter. ![]() In the first study ever conducted of an Indian language, Roger Williams wrote A Key into the Language of America in 1643. Williams’ most famous works were The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644), A Key into the Language of America (1643), and his Letter to the Town of Providence (1655). He is remembered as the founder of Rhode Island, an advocate for the separation of church and state, and for his views on taking land from Native Americans. Rhode Island fell victim to the war, and was burned down. Until King Philip’s War began in 1675, the Native Americans were peaceful with the English settlers. In a trip to England to receive a charter for Rhode Island, Williams met and became friends with poet, John Milton. ![]() Quickly becoming a religious refuge, the colony served as a safe place for Quakers, among others, whose beliefs didn’t really match up with that of the public. So, in 1636, he set out with his followers to Narragansett Bay where they purchased land (the right way) from the Narragansett Indians, founding a colony in Rhode Island that Williams called the Providence Plantation. Williams was well-known for his relations with Native Americans and he was one of the first individuals to document and translate a Native American language and ethnographic study in both prose and poetry. In 1632, he moved to the Plymouth Colony, and in the next year returned to Salem when he had a disagreement with the magistrate, claiming that the only fair purchase of land from the Native Americans was a direct purchase.īecause of his views, Williams was banished from the colony. Upon arrival, he denied the invitation to associate with the Anglican Puritans there. On February 5, 1631, he arrived at Boston with Mary. In 1630, he felt he needed to leave England because of his views on the freedom of worship. Together, the couple had six children (all were born later in America). He married Mary Barnard in December of 1629. Through Masham, Williams gained connections to Puritans such as Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Hooker. He graduated college in 1627.Īfter graduating, he became a chaplain to the family of a wealthy Puritan gentleman, Sir William Masham. Williams especially had a knack for different languages and spoke Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Coke influenced Williams to attend Charter House in London and then Cambridge University. During his teenage years, Williams grew up as the protege of well-known jurist, Sir Edward Coke. The exact date is unknown due to the Great Fire of London in 1666 in which his birth records were burned. Roger Williams was born in 1603 in London, England to James Williams and Alice Pemberton. Matt Moore Ryan Schlom and Katelyn Metcalf Introduction ![]()
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