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Social Studies 5: Religious Conflict among the Puritans 36 Views


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Description:

If there's one thing we've seen throughout history, where there's mandatory religion, there tends to be conflict. Just like in the spaghetti wars of '07. Those poor spaghetti monsters never saw it coming.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

Roger Williams was actually a preeeetty big rebel for his time.

00:17

…Uh…not that big. [Roger wearing leather jacket and sunglasses]

00:19

Think more "religious freedom" and less "things that would totally make your mom cry if you did them." [Mom blowing her nose]

00:24

Roger grew up in Jolly Old England, where he became a Puritan Minister.

00:28

But then things started to get Not-So-Jolly, and England was like, "Hey everyone! Ya gotta [King Hengry speaking]

00:32

worship the official Church of England and nothing else, whoo, that sounds like it'll

00:37

go over super well!"

00:38

Roger was like, "Uh, what? No, that's dumb, peace out, y'all", and he packed up his bags and left. [Roger walks away from the Church]

00:44

And where does an Englishman go when he doesn't want to stay in England?

00:47

When he's longing for change?

00:48

When he's yearning for new directions? He goes to…

00:51

DISNEYLaaaaaand inNew England? [The Disney castle transforms into a church]

00:54

…Huh. Way to really branch out there, Roger. So Roger was a Separatist, because he separated

01:00

from England, and because he didn't think the government should be allowed to mess with [King Henry walking outside a castle and Roger protesting]

01:04

the way people wanted to worship.

01:06

This might sound pretty tame to us today, but back then, it was crazy.

01:10

Like…dressing up in a chicken suit and playing Connect Four by yourself for seven hours. [Man dressed in chicken suit and playing connect four]

01:15

…Is that not what cool, crazy people do? …Oh well.

01:18

Anyway, back on track. Roger found that even in the New World, finding people who agreed

01:23

with him wasn't always easy.

01:24

Especially because Roger was radical in other ways, too––he studied American Indian culture, [Roger reading American Indian culture]

01:29

and thought that American Indians should be respected for their beliefs and paid for their land.

01:34

Yup. Respecting people and not stealing was crazy-radical at the time. Whodda thunk it?

01:39

But considering that most colonists at the time would've made Disney villains shiver [Hammer nailing down a no indians allowed sign]

01:42

with fear, this isn't too surprising. And after getting in disagreements with settlers

01:47

in Boston, Massachusetts and Plymouth, bad-boy Roger was eventually convicted of sedition– [Judge bangs gavel]

01:52

–which is a fancy legal word for “stirring up trouble”–

01:55

–so he ended up buying his own land from the Wampanoag to start his own colony. [Roger meets wampanoag member]

01:59

So next time you disagree with your parents, just buy your own colony where you can do

02:03

things your way, and tell them you're learning from history. Works every time.

02:07

Anyway, Roger's colony was named Providence, which today is the capital city of Rhode Island.

02:12

It's also the best place in the entire universe, because it has the most doughnut shops per [Road sign for Providence, Rhode Island]

02:15

capita in the entire country.

02:17

Religious freedom is great and all, but nothing beats a good chocolate doughnut. [Lots of doughnut stores]

02:21

Oh, and we should probably mention that Providence is also really important because it was the

02:25

very first place to have a distinct separation of church and state.

02:28

The colony was a safe-haven for anyone who disagreed with the government, and Williams

02:32

went on to write a book about church and state, which ended up influencing that little tiny [The cover of Roger Williams book]

02:37

thing that you may have heard of, called the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

02:41

Again, that's great, but c'mon…doughnuts. [Roger excited about doughnuts]

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