A Wall of Separation · Episode 1 of 14 · 52 min
The Man Who Invented 'Separation of Church and State' — Before Jefferson
Before the Constitution or Jefferson, an exiled Puritan, Roger Williams, imagined a wall of separation, built to protect the church from the world rather than the state from religion. The episode recovers the colonial argument over conscience, establishment and the punishment of dissent, showing America inherited two rival ideas of separation.
Who's who
- Roger WilliamsBanished Puritan minister who founded Providence and wrote of a wall of separation
- John CottonMassachusetts Bay minister and Williams's chief antagonist
- John Winthrop+2 more episodesMassachusetts Bay governor and architect of the city upon a hill
- Anne HutchinsonLay theologian banished from Massachusetts Bay for antinomian teaching
- William Penn+1 more episodeQuaker founder of Pennsylvania built on liberty of conscience
- Cecil CalvertCatholic proprietor of Maryland who sponsored the 1649 Toleration Act
- Mary DyerQuaker hanged on Boston Common in 1660 for defying banishment
- George WhitefieldRevivalist whose tours ignited the First Great Awakening
Where it happens
- Providence, Rhode IslandFounded by Williams as a refuge for liberty of conscience
- Massachusetts Bay Colony+1 more episodePuritan commonwealth that banished Williams and Hutchinson
- Boston Common, MassachusettsWhere four Quakers were hanged, 1659 to 1661
- MarylandColony of the 1649 Toleration Act
- Pennsylvania+2 more episodesQuaker colony chartered in 1681
Timeline
- 1635Massachusetts orders Williams banished for diverse, new, and dangerous opinions
- 1637-38Anne Hutchinson is tried and banished
- 1644Williams writes of a wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world
- 1649Maryland passes the Toleration Act protecting Trinitarian Christians
- 1659-1661Massachusetts hangs four Quakers, including Mary Dyer
- 1730s-1740sThe First Great Awakening splits congregations and multiplies Baptists and dissenters
Still debated
Scholars largely agree Williams's wall protected the church, but accommodationists and strict separationists read that differently. Whether Rhode Island was a model or an outlier, and whether establishments served order or oppression, are also argued.
Connected episodes in other series
The Militia and the Meeting House: Colonial Militias and the First ObjectorsGreeting: America and the Draft · Episode 2Also features William Penn
The Great MisunderstandingThe Ground Rules · Episode 6Also features John Winthrop
Why Mexico Ranks Happier Than the United StatesHappiness in the World · Episode 1Also features John Winthrop