Roger Williams

Roger Williams, an English religious nonconformist, was exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony when he challenged the authority of Boston's colonial clergy leaders. Williams founded the American colony of Rhode Island in the 1630s under the principles of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. Williams's example contributed to the adoption of a system of religious tolerance by the framers of the Constitution of the United States.

In 1633, after fleeing to Holland in 1630 to escape punishment for his Puritan sermons, English clergyman Thomas Hooker emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636 Hooker led a migration from New Towne (now Cambridge), Massachusetts, to Hartford, Connecticut, and became the leader of the settlement. Depicted in this sketch is the Thomas Hooker party on their journey to Connecticut.