Archer W.: Why was Rhode Island important in religious freedom?
Marty Weil: Rhode Island was important because it provided refuge and shelter to those people who dissented from the orthodoxy practice by the Puritans in Massachusetts. Roger Williams had founded Rhode Island on the principles of giving people the right to religious expression, and when Ann Hutchinson engaged in a notable dispute with the Puritan leadership in Massachusetts, it was to Rhode Island that she went, knowing that she could find refuge there. And it was a place that believed in the separation of church and state, meaning that people could not be brought before courts for their expression of their own personal religious beliefs.
Archer W.: Thank you, Marty. That was Marty Weil from the newsroom of The Washington Post.
