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| Roger escapes from Massachusetts |
I feel a little sorry for Roger Williams, he was so far ahead of his time that he must of seemed like an alien from Mars when he arrived in Boston in 1631 with his crazy ideas of separatism, soul liberty and division of church and state.
Williams believed that each person was responsible for their own relationship with God, could choose their own religion, or not, and live by their own conscience.
The authorities and church leaders in Massachusetts were not impressed with his ideas and, after several warnings, the Court banished Williams from the Colony. Williams made his way to what is now Rhode Island where he set up his own settlement and named it Providence because he felt that God had brought him there. Soon Williams was surrounded by a community of dissenters and like minded individuals who were also "distressed of conscience".
This was the history that The Company of Redwood Library in Newport, RI had behind them (see yesterday’s post). Religious and intellectual freedom was at the core of the city’s philosophy and the Redwood directors exemplified the ideas when they sat down to order the books that would make up the collection.
The authorities and church leaders in Massachusetts were not impressed with his ideas and, after several warnings, the Court banished Williams from the Colony. Williams made his way to what is now Rhode Island where he set up his own settlement and named it Providence because he felt that God had brought him there. Soon Williams was surrounded by a community of dissenters and like minded individuals who were also "distressed of conscience".
This was the history that The Company of Redwood Library in Newport, RI had behind them (see yesterday’s post). Religious and intellectual freedom was at the core of the city’s philosophy and the Redwood directors exemplified the ideas when they sat down to order the books that would make up the collection.
Cheryl Helms, in her article in America’s Private Libraries, writes, “it was one of the first colonial secular organizations in which men of diverse faiths in the community - Quakers, Sabbatarians, Anglicans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Adventitsts and Jews - were able to come together across religious divides.”
In order to appease everyone, the directors started their library collection by choosing Bibles in four different languages, the biographies of Jesus and Mahomat and the best modern sermons of the day.
They next went to the classics and ordered all the usual suspect in their original Greek and Latin and in translation (even colonial gentlemen needed books to help them get to sleep at night).
Because Newport received ships and merchants from around the globe, they included dictionaries in seven different languages and the newest books in geography, history and recent voyages.
The two most popular books in the library were “History of the Rebellion”, about the English Civil War and the “Lives of Admirals”.
My favorite part of the collection are the “useful” books and the books ordered for the educated “ladies”. Helms write that there were books on “animal husbandry, brewing, distilling, domestic arts, bee-keeping, masonry, carpentry and shipbuilding”.
In order to appease everyone, the directors started their library collection by choosing Bibles in four different languages, the biographies of Jesus and Mahomat and the best modern sermons of the day.
They next went to the classics and ordered all the usual suspect in their original Greek and Latin and in translation (even colonial gentlemen needed books to help them get to sleep at night).
Because Newport received ships and merchants from around the globe, they included dictionaries in seven different languages and the newest books in geography, history and recent voyages.
The two most popular books in the library were “History of the Rebellion”, about the English Civil War and the “Lives of Admirals”.
My favorite part of the collection are the “useful” books and the books ordered for the educated “ladies”. Helms write that there were books on “animal husbandry, brewing, distilling, domestic arts, bee-keeping, masonry, carpentry and shipbuilding”.
I guess even Newport gentlemen had occasions to stop philosophizing and get something accomplished, or at least tell someone else how to accomplish it. The books for the gentler sex included “The Ladies Library” edited by Richard Steele and “A Treatise on Foreign Vegetables” by Ralph Thicknesse. The ladies also had their choice of magazines: Tatler, Spectator and Modern Gazetteer.
What wasn’t included? Fiction and drama. They ordered only one edition of Shakespeare’s plays and a single novel, Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding. Novels were still a new, upcoming trend.
Helms concludes the section by reminding us that the founders “came together in tolerance, cooperation and generosity to create something greater than themselves. They understood that the ability to read, to learn, and to have access to knowledge was essential to the betterment of themselves and to the creation of a civil society. It is an American story, one that each of us deserves to share as apart of our heritage and identity.”
What wasn’t included? Fiction and drama. They ordered only one edition of Shakespeare’s plays and a single novel, Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding. Novels were still a new, upcoming trend.
Helms concludes the section by reminding us that the founders “came together in tolerance, cooperation and generosity to create something greater than themselves. They understood that the ability to read, to learn, and to have access to knowledge was essential to the betterment of themselves and to the creation of a civil society. It is an American story, one that each of us deserves to share as apart of our heritage and identity.”
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