Imagine standing in the freezing mud of a New
England settlement. Right. It's March of 1676.
The air is just thick with wood smoke. Yeah,
you can practically smell it. Exactly. You are
a colonist in the town of Providence and you
are watching hundreds of indigenous warriors
emerge from the treeline. Hundreds of them. Yeah,
these are the Narragansetts and they are armed.
They're angry and they're actively fighting this.
brutal regional conflict. The one we now call
King Philip's War. Right. So given everything
that has happened in the surrounding colonies
by this point. Which was just total warfare,
massacres, ambushes. Exactly. You were likely
bracing for absolute devastation. I mean, you'd
think this is the end. But then something astonishing
happens. The Narcansett warriors, they don't
attack you. No. Instead, they give the colonists
an order to just leave. Wait, really? Just leave?
Yes. Evacuate the town. They literally wait for
the men, the women, and the children to safely
depart. Wow. And only then do they walk through
the settlement and burn Providence to the absolute
ground. That is just, I mean, it completely defies
the conventional logic of warfare. You have this
invading force systematically dismantling a settlement,
literally erasing its physical footprint from
the earth, while simultaneously demonstrating
this profound, almost surgical restraint toward
human life. Right. Destroying the colony, but
purposely sparing the people. Exactly. So why
would a warring indigenous nation spare the very
people occupying their land? It's a huge question.
To answer that, you have to rewind exactly 40
years. Welcome to the deep dive. Glad to be here.
Today, we're opening up a stack of historical
notes, specifically drawing from the foundational
history of Rhode Island. Yes. And our mission
today is to explore one of the most complex,
fragile, and ultimately tragic relationships
in early American history. The incredibly nuanced
dynamic between the early European settlers and
the indigenous Narragansett people. Exactly.
And just as a quick reminder to you listening,
our goal here isn't to assign modern moral judgments
to these historical figures. Right, we are just...
impartially rigorously examining the facts presented
in our source text to understand how these events
actually unfolded. Exactly. So to really grasp
the gravity of that burning town in 1676, where
do we start? Well, we have to completely erase
the modern map of New England from our minds.
Okay, map erased. We need to establish the baseline
reality of pre -colonization. This was not some
vast, empty wilderness waiting for European discovery.
Right. That's a common misconception. A huge
one. It was a fully realized, densely populated,
and politically intricate geopolitical landscape.
With defined borders and everything. Oh, absolutely.
The region was controlled by powerful, established,
indigenous nations, primarily the Wampanoag,
the Narragansett, and the Niantic. And these
nations had their own deep histories long before
anyone in Europe even figured out how to cross
the Atlantic. Exactly. I mean, they had complex
economies based on seasonal agriculture, hunting
and massive maritime trade network. They had
multigenerational diplomatic alliances and really
intense regional rivalries. The Narragansett's
in particular were a dominant force here. So
they were kind of running the show in that specific
area. They really were. They controlled the western
shore of Narragansett Bay and had managed to
build a very formidable political structure.
You know, history is so often painted in these
incredibly broad, simplistic strokes. Always.
The narrative you usually get is like, colonizers
arrive, there's a clash, the colonizers win,
and the story moves on. A swift, inevitable steamroller
of conquest. Exactly. But what the source text
reveals about this specific region is a story
of a genuine, localized, attempted peace. It
really is. We're talking intense linguistic curiosity,
desperate geopolitical alliances, and honestly
a master class in how fragile diplomacy can be.
Especially when the entire world around you is
slowly catching fire. Right. Because the piece
that was built here wasn't a sudden magical understanding
between cultures, was it? Not at all. It was
highly mechanical. It required constant exhausting
maintenance. Like keeping an old car running.
Exactly. And understanding how it was built and
exactly why it fell apart, it forces us to look
at the mechanisms of how human societies try
to coexist. Especially when their fundamental
understandings of the world are just completely
at odds. Right. Things like how to own land,
how to wage war, how to govern. Totally different
paradigms. Okay, let's start building that narrative.
To understand the catastrophic war that leads
to Providence burning, we have to look at the
unprecedented way this specific settlement began.
Because it did not start with a conquering army
marching in with flags and muskets. No, it started
in 1636 with an exile. A single guy. A man named
Roger Williams. And he was banished from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Now the context of
that banishment is critical to understand. Why
did they kick him out? Well, the Massachusetts
Bay Colony was a strict, highly regulated, Puritan
society. Like, very strict. Incredibly strict.
The foundational idea there was a unified religious
and civil community. Deviance wasn't just a theological
issue. It wasn't just, oh, we disagree on a Bible
verse. Right. It was viewed as a direct threat
to the survival of the colony itself. And Williams
was dissenting. Yes. He held these dissenting
religious views. He was specifically arguing
for a separation between the church and the state.
Which was highly controversial. Extremely. And
maybe more importantly, he was questioning the
validity of the colonial charters that claimed
indigenous land without actually purchasing it.
Oh, wow. So he's actively challenging the king's
right to just hand out the land. Exactly. So
the leaders of Massachusetts Bay decide he is
just too dangerous to keep around. But let's
be clear about what banishment actually meant
in 1636. It's not pretty. Right. It's not a polite
request to pack your bags and move to a different
zip code. No. Being cast out into the New England
winter, away from the fortified settlements and
the food source. It is essentially a death sentence.
A brutal, calculated expulsion. He has no army,
no provisions, and literally nowhere to go. He
is entirely stripped of his societal protection.
So what does he do? Well, he hits south, toward
the tip of Narragansett Bay, entering the sovereign
territory of the Narragansett people. OK, so
Williams arrives basically as a refugee. Yes.
He's a guy who just got kicked out of an incredibly
exclusive, highly punitive club. That's a great
way to put it. He's out in the cold. So he is
forced to approach complete strangers. And this
is where it gets interesting. Because instead
of just sneaking into the woods, you know, pitching
a tent and hoping he goes unnoticed... Which
would have probably gotten killed anyway. Right.
He actively engages the leadership of the territory.
He essentially goes up and knocks on the door
and asks for permission to stay. And he actually
gets a formal agreement. Yeah, in 1636 he is
granted land by the Narragansett tribe. There
is an actual deed to what becomes Providence.
Signed by Chief Canonicus. Now this interaction
with Canonicus is fascinating. It forces us to
look at the mechanics of 17th century diplomacy.
Let's analyze that. What does it actually mean
for a paramount indigenous leader? a sachem like
Canonicus, to sign a deed granting land to a
European exile. We'll think about the power dynamic.
Canonicus is operating from a position of immense
strength. Right. He commands thousands of people.
And Williams is just a starving man in the snow.
Canonicus could have just had him killed on the
spot. Or just turned him away to freeze. But
Canonicus makes a strategic decision. Which was?
By accepting Williams and granting him a place
to settle, Canonicus is pulling this strange
European into the geopolitical landscape of the
Bay on Narragansett terms. Oh, I see. He's making
Williams part of his network. Exactly. However,
they formalize this through a deed. And here
is where the mechanical misunderstanding of colonization
really begins. Because they have two totally
different definitions of what a deed is, right?
Exactly. When an English legal mind looks at
a deed, they see a permanent exclusive transfer
of property. Like, I give you this land and I
never step foot on it again. Absolute ownership.
You draw a border, you build a fence, and it
belongs to you in perpetuity. But from the perspective
of an indigenous sachem... Land ownership wasn't
about exclusive permanent alienation. It was
about overlapping rights of usage. What do you
mean by overlapping? Like, you might grant a
group the right to hunt in a certain forest during
the winter, or maybe fish in a specific river
during the spring. When Canonicus signs that
deed, he is likely viewing it as a diplomatic
treaty. So he's granting Williams the right to
live and sustain himself on that land. Yes, incorporating
him into a network of mutual obligation. He is
not erasing his own people's relationship to
that exact same geography. That distinction right
there that is the invisible fault line running
underneath this entire history. It really is.
They are signing a piece of paper but they are
shaking hands across a massive conceptual chasm.
A chasm that will eventually swallow both sides.
But you know I have to push back a little on
how we view Roger Williams here. Go ahead. It's
very tempting to look back and crown him as this
forward -thinking egalitarian visionary of peace.
Sure because he declares his new settlement a
haven for religious freedom. Right, which sounds
great to modern ears, but was his diplomacy actually
born of some enlightened worldview or was it
just sheer naked necessity? That's the million
dollar question. Because, I mean, he didn't have
a ship full of cannons. If he wanted to survive
the winter, he literally had to play nice with
the people who controlled the territory. That
is the core tension of his legacy for sure. Necessity
undeniably forced him to Canonicus' door. He
had no other choice. Right. If he had arrived
with an armada, perhaps the story would be entirely
different. OK. But we have to look at his actions
after he secured his immediate survival. After
the snow melted. Exactly. That is where we see
something that transcends mere desperation. Once
Williams was safe, He didn't just lock his door
and isolate his settlement. What did he do? He
engaged in a massive proactive effort to understand
his new neighbors. And that effort leads to a
deeply profound cultural artifact. Williams attempts
to literally decode the culture. Yes. But. We
have to set the stage for what he was walking
into because the source material provides some
incredibly grim context here. Very grim. The
indigenous populations of this region were dealing
with an existential crisis. They had been and
were currently being devastated by disease. These
were virgin soil epidemics. What does that mean
exactly? Well, European explorers, fishermen
and traders had been moving along the coast for
decades before Plymouth or Massachusetts Bay
were even founded. So the contact happened long
before the permanent settlements. Right. And
they brought pathogens with them. Things like
smallpox and leptospirosis. And the indigenous
populations had absolutely no natural immunity
against them. None whatsoever. The mortality
rates were just staggering. In some areas, entire
villages were entirely wiped out. So you have
a demographic collapse happening in real time.
Yes. And on top of that, The geopolitical map
is shifting, leading to intense intertribal warfare.
Because the power balance is totally thrown off.
Communities are grieving massive losses while
trying to defend themselves against indigenous
rivals who might be trying to exploit that sudden
weakness. This is the highly volatile, traumatized
landscape that Williams steps into. And his response
to this massive cultural and linguistic gap.
is to write a book. Yeah, in 1643, he publishes
a key into the languages of America. Which is
effectively a phrase book and a dictionary of
the Narragansett language. Yeah, exactly. Let's
talk about the mechanics of doing that in the
1630s. I mean, this isn't just downloading a
language app on your phone. Not at all. Think
about the intense vulnerability and the physical
effort required. You have to sit across from
someone who does not share your worldview. Or
your religion. Or a single root word of your
vocabulary. Right, you're starting from absolute
zero. You literally have to point at objects,
you have to mimic sounds. And you have to listen
closely enough to grasp complex syntax, writing
down phonetic spellings by candlelight. It requires
a posture of total humility. Yes. You have to
become the student and rely entirely on the patience
of your indigenous hosts. And that is the absolute
antithesis of the typical colonial approach.
Which relies on the assumption of cultural superiority,
right? Just dictating terms. Exactly. Creating
a linguistic key implies a deep fundamental desire
to converse, to actually negotiate. To understand
the inner workings of another society. The book
was categorized by daily life, things like weather,
eating, salutations. It was a tool built specifically
for coexistence. But the tragedy of this effort
is revealed immediately in the history. It's
heartbreaking. Because the language he was documenting
eventually died out entirely. Yes. Today, it
is only partially preserved because of the book
Williams wrote. Just think about that. A language
is an entire operating system for human consciousness.
Right. It carries a culture's relationship to
the environment, to their ancestors, and to each
other. And the fact that the Narragansett language
was silenced and exists now primarily as an archive
within Williams's book. It's a devastating testament
to the cultural erasure that colonization brought.
He built a bridge to a living culture. but history
turned it into a memorial. Wow. But you know,
in the short term, that bridge actually worked.
It did. This localized diplomacy wasn't just
an academic exercise for him. It had massive,
immediate geopolitical applications. Very practical
ones. Williams used his linguistic skills and
the trust he had built to keep the powerful Narragansetts
on friendly terms with the colonists. And this
culminated in a formal military alliance in 1637.
Right. During the Pequot War. The Pequot War
is a crucial turning point here. Let's unpack
that. The Pequots were another powerful indigenous
nation in the region, primarily based in what
is now Connecticut. OK. And they controlled the
highly lucrative wampum trade, which was vital
for both indigenous diplomacy and the burgeoning
European economy. So the English colonies wanted
to break the Pequot monopoly. Exactly. The English
are looking for an angle to take control. But
why would the Narragansett's ally with Rhode
Island, and by extension the rest of the English,
against the Pequots. It comes back to the shifting
balance of power caused by that demographic collapse
we just discussed. The disease. Right. The Narragansetts
were powerful, but they were dealing with the
fallout of disease and regional instability.
And the Pequots were their traditional rivals.
Yes. So from the Narragansett perspective, the
English, with their firearms and growing numbers,
presented a highly effective counterweight. Oh,
I see. By allying with the English, the Narragansetts
could eliminate a major rival and secure their
own dominance in the region. It's geopolitical
real politics. Totally. It's a grand chess board,
and the Narragansetts make a calculated strategic
decision to use the new colonial players to check
an old indigenous enemy. And Roger Williams was
the crucial conduit that made that alliance possible.
Because he actually put in the work to speak
the language and negotiate as a peer. Exactly.
It shows that For a brief window of time, a functional,
mutually beneficial piece was actually achievable.
Achievable, yes. But fundamentally unsustainable
over the long term. Unfortunately, yeah. Because
the original architects of that piece inevitably
aged out of the picture. Decades pass. And a
new generation inherits the landscape. And what
they inherit is an absolute powder keg. We are
moving into the late 17th century now, approaching
1675. And the history is blunt. The peace did
not last. The demographic and spatial realities
of New England had drastically changed. And this
brings us to Metacomet. Yes, who became the paramount
sachem of the Wampanoags. And the English referred
to him as King Philip. Right. And this sparks
King Philip's War, which consumes the region
from 1675 to 1676. Now, there is a vital detail
in the source text here that highlights this
generational shift. Which one? Well, Metacomet
was known as King Philip by the settlers of Portsmouth,
right? Yes. A Rhode Island settlement that had
actually purchased its land from Metacomet's
father. Massasoit. Now, Massasoit is a legendary
figure in colonial history. He forged the initial
alliance with the Pilgrims at Plymouth back in
the 1620s. Exactly. Massasoit operated under
the strategic assumption that he could manage
the English presence. By utilizing them as allies
and trading partners within his existing indigenous
network. Right. And he engaged in land sales,
including the ones to Portsmouth. But by the
time his son, Metacama, takes power, the colonial
footprint is completely different. Night and
day. It's no longer just a few struggling settlements
clinging to the coast, desperate for indigenous
help to survive the winter. No, it has become
a massive, self -sustaining, resource -hungry,
colonial machine. And the systemic clash between
these two societies has finally reached a breaking
point. It wasn't just about a few individual
disputes anymore. Right. It was about totally
incompatible ways of existing on the land. Let's
drill into the mechanics of that incompatibility.
OK, let's do it. The English economy required
constant expansion. Right. They brought cattle
and pigs. And they let them roam freely. These
livestock would wander into indigenous, unfenced
agricultural fields and just decimate their corn
crops. And the English response was essentially,
well, you should have built a fence. Exactly.
But the indigenous way of life required vast
open territories for seasonal movement, hunting,
and sustainable agriculture. the land destroyed
their economic model. Metacomet recognized that
the continued expansion of English legal jurisdiction
and physical settlement was an existential threat.
They were slowly suffocating the Wampanoag and
their allies. And this realization is what led
to the eruption of King Philip's War. An incredibly
bloody desperate effort to halt colonial expansion.
Which brings us back to Rhode Island. Yes. So
the region explodes. And the history notes that
Metacomet led attacks around Narragansett Bay.
despite Rhode Island's continued neutrality.
Okay, we really need to examine this concept
of Rhode Island's neutrality because it is one
of the most fascinating legal fictions in this
entire narrative. It really is a fiction. Rhode
Island essentially raises its hand in the middle
of a massive bloody regional war and says, we
are sitting this one out. Yeah, good luck with
that. Right, think of it this way. Imagine you
live in a massive, sprawling apartment building.
A fire breaks out on the first floor. The residents
on the second floor are actively fighting the
people on the third floor over the fire extinguishers.
The hallways are ablaze. And you, sitting in
your apartment on the fourth floor, decide to
tape a little piece of paper to your door that
says, fire -free zone, neutral territory. I love
that analogy. You can declare neutrality all
you want, but the flames do not recognize your
invisible borders. the smoke is going to come
under the door. Because your apartment is built
out of the exact same flammable wood as the rest
of the building. Exactly. That analogy perfectly
captures the mechanical failure of Rhode Island's
geopolitical position. They are geographically
situated right in the center of the conflict
zone. Metacomet is launching attacks in the exact
same bay where Roger Williams hammered out his
original peace treaties. But if Rhode Island
was truly neutral and Metacomet knew the legacy
of Roger Williams, Why was the war spilling over
into their territory? Because neutrality is impossible
when you are physically occupying the land that
is the root cause of a systemic conflict. Right.
To Metacomet and the Indigenous Coalition fighting
for survival, the legal distinctions between
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, and Rhode
Island were increasingly irrelevant. They were
all just English. Yes, Rhode Island had a history
of better relations. Yes, they had been more
diplomatic, but they were still English colonists.
They still owned the cattle eating the native
crops. spatial footprint was still part of the
colonial expansion. So the individual goodwill
of Roger Williams couldn't act as a shield against
the broader machinery of colonialism. It was
too little, too late. You simply cannot be a
neutral colonizer in a war that is fundamentally
about the rejection of colonization. And worse
still for Rhode Island, their declaration of
neutrality wasn't just ignored by the indigenous
forces. It was about to be violently and systematically
violated by their fellow English colonists. This
brings us to the absolute breaking point of the
narrative. December 19, 1675. This is a date
that shatters whatever illusion of a fire -free
zone Rhode Island was clinging to. The event
is known historically as the Great Swamp Fight.
Though it is more accurately described as the
Great Swamp Massacre. The specifics of this event
are staggering. Tell us what happened. A massive
colonial force led by General Josiah Winslow
invaded and destroyed a fortified Narragansett
village located deep within a swamp in southern
Rhode Island. Let's look at the composition of
that invading army. It was made up of militias
from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth.
Notice who is entirely absent from that list.
Rhode Island. Exactly. The neighboring colonies,
operating as a unified military bloc called the
United Colonies, completely disregarded Rhode
Island sovereignty. Why do they just ignore Rhode
Island's borders? To the leadership of Massachusetts
and Connecticut, Rhode Island was a rogue state.
Because of the religious freedom stuff? Yes.
It was a haven for religious dissidents and heretics.
And its policy of neutrality was viewed as a
dangerous, treasonous liability. So General Winslow
gathers this unified New England army, marches
them straight across the colonial border, deep
into Rhode Island territory, and launches a massive
preemptive strike against the Narragansetts.
The very people who had granted the land for
Providence 40 years earlier. The mechanics of
the attack are brutal. The Narragansetts had
built a massive, fortified winter encampment
in the Great Swamp. And under normal conditions,
the swamp acted as a natural, impenetrable moat.
Right, you can't just march an army through a
swamp. But December of 1675 was bitterly cold.
The swamp froze solid. This allowed Winslow's
army to march straight over the ice and directly
up to the palisades of the village. The United
Colonies launched this attack because they were
paranoid, right? Yeah. The Narragansetts hadn't
fully entered the war on Metacomet's side yet.
But they were taking in Wampanoag refugees. Exactly.
And the English saw this as evidence that the
Narragansetts were massing for an offensive.
So they struck first. The destruction was apocalyptic.
Hundreds of Narragansett men, women, and children
were killed. And they destroyed their food too.
Their massive winter food supplies, stores of
corn and beans essential for surviving the freeze,
were systematically burned. So even those who
managed to escape into the frozen swamp? They
were left with absolutely no shelter and no food.
Just imagine the psychological paradigm shift
for the surviving Narragansetts. I mean, for
four decades, they had navigated an incredibly
complex localized relationship with the Rhode
Island settlers. They allowed them to stay. They
allied with them. They dealt with Roger Williams.
And the reward for that localized diplomacy was
an army of English soldiers marching into their
territory and slaughtering their people. It proved
definitively that the English were, practically
speaking, a monolith. It didn't matter what the
Rhode Island government said. When the chips
were down, English troops from anywhere could
cross the border and unleash total war. This
preemptive massacre accomplished exactly what
the Uniter colonies feared, by the way. It forced
the powerful Narragansett nation fully and irrevocably
into the war against the English. Any hope of
regional containment was completely dead. Which
brings us back to the moment we started with
at the beginning of the show. The devastation
in the Great Swamp demanded a response. The Narragansetts
regrouped. and they brought the war directly
to the doorstep of the man who had founded the
colony. The Narragansetts retaliated by invading
and burning down several Rhode Island settlements.
And the most symbolic of these was Providence.
The town built by the exiled settler. The town
founded on a deed from Chief Canonicus. The town
meant to be a haven for religious freedom. It
is surrounded and put to the torch. But, as we
discussed at the very beginning, they allowed
the population to leave first. This act of restraint
in the middle of a war of extermination is one
of the most profound mysteries of this history.
It really is. Why, fresh from the massacre of
their own families in the Great Swamp, would
the Narragansett warriors spare the citizens
of Providence? Writ yourself in the shoes of
those colonists. You are waiting for the blade
to fall. You know what your fellow Englishman
just did in the swamp. And instead you are told
to walk away. It is an incredible contradiction.
What does it suggest? Well, it suggests a deeply
ingrained moral code regarding warfare that the
English militias clearly did not share. Right.
But it also strongly implies a lingering complex
respect for the specific legacy of Roger Williams.
Even as they were burning down the structures
of colonization, the memory of Williams. The
man who came to them freezing, who learned their
language, who negotiated with canonicals. That
memory might have carried enough diplomatic weight
to scare his townsfolk. They were systematically
unbuilding the physical footprint of the English.
The experiment of coexistence was over. The structures
had to burn. But they looked at the people and
decided not to inflict the same slaughter that
had visited upon them. It was a demonstration
of profound mercy paired with the absolute erasure
of the settlement. But that mercy was not reciprocated,
was it? No. The burning of Providence was the
final major projection of Indigenous power in
the region. The tide of the war turned. And the
retaliation from the unified English colonies
was swift, absolute, and utterly devoid of restraint.
The climax of King Philip's war brings us to
the final erasure of Rhode Island's autonomy.
The history notes that one of the final actions
of the war was the hunting down and killing of
Meta Comet. King Philip himself. Right. Let's
look at the logistics of his death. Meta Comet
is tracked down to Mount Hope. And Mount Hope
is physically located within Rhode Island. But
the troops that kill him are led by Captain Benjamin
Church. And Captain Church is from Connecticut.
So the paramount indigenous leader is killed
on Rhode Island soil. by a Connecticut militia.
Rhode Island is just a theater of operations
for foreign armies at this point. It cements
the reality that the colonial borders, the localized
diplomacy, the haven that Williams envisioned.
It had all collapsed. Rhode Island had lost complete
control of its own territory. And the aftermath
for the native populations is chilling. Yes,
the historical record provides a few specific
data points that track the ultimate tragic consequence
of this conflict. Just four years after the war
ends, there is the 1680 Colonial Census. What
does this say? It lists 175 enslaved people in
Rhode Island, specifically noting that this number
included both Native and Black persons. This
is the horrific transition of the survivors.
Following the defeat of the indigenous uprising,
the colonies had massive war debts to pay. How
did they pay them? One of the primary ways they
funded that debt was by selling indigenous captives
into slavery. Wow. Many were shipped out of New
England to the brutal sugar plantations of the
West Indies, removing them from their homelands
forever. But as the census shows... A significant
number remained enslaved locally. Forced into
bondage right on top of the lands they used to
control. The transition is staggering. And then
we jump forward in the timeline to 1740. The
history mentions that the colonial government
appointed two men, Richard Ward and Samuel Perry,
to act as trustees to the Indian Sacham Nenegret.
Let's unpack the legal mechanism of a trustee.
What does that mean? Well, Seycham is a leader,
right? A political figure meant to guide their
people and negotiate with other powers. Right.
But when a government appoints a trustee to oversee
you, it implies that you are a ward of the state.
You are legally deemed incapable of managing
your own affairs. Or your own money or your own
remaining land. It is the ultimate erasure of
legal personhood and sovereignty. Exactly. Look
at the arc. In 1636, Chief Canonicus is a sovereign
leader evaluating an English exile and signing
a diplomatic deed. He is the power broker. By
1675, the population is subjected to preemptive
massacres. By 1680, the survivors are categorized
as enslaved property on a census. And by 1740,
the remaining leadership is subjugated to colonial
trustees. The transformation from sovereign landowners
to wards of the state is absolute. It is incredibly
heavy to process the entire trajectory of this
deep dive. It really is. We started with a guy
knocking on a door in the snow trying to build
a new kind of society based on negotiation. And
we end with burning towns, a dead indigenous
leader and a multi -generational legacy of enslavement
and legal subjugation. It reveals that peace
is an incredibly fragile construct. It isn't
a permanent piece of infrastructure just because
you signed a document. It requires immense constant
effort to maintain against the gravity of greed,
territorial expansion, and the horrific momentum
of warfare. The localized piece that Roger Williams
built was genuine, but it was dismantled by the
broader systemic pressures of a region that simply
could not sustain two conflicting ways of life.
As we step back and look at the whole picture,
I keep returning to the artifact that tried to
bridge that divide. A key into the languages
of America. Roger Williams wrote that book in
1643 with the express purpose of connecting two
living, breathing cultures. It was intended to
be a vibrant tool for daily communication, trade,
and mutual understanding. But because of the
devastating systemic consequences of King Philip's
War, the indigenous society had documented was
irreparably fractured and subjugated. And because
the culture was fractured, the purpose of the
book was fundamentally altered. What was written
as a dynamic bridge between peoples became essentially
a tombstone. It transformed into the only surviving
record of a language spoken by the very people
who first welcomed Roger Williams in from the
cold. A tool for coexistence became a memorial
to something permanently lost. It makes you wonder
what Other cultural bridges in history, treaties,
alliances, attempts at understanding were built
with immense effort, only to become mere memorials
to a peace that couldn't survive the fire. Think
about the fragile mechanics of those agreements.
It takes an incredible amount of empathy to build
them and so little time to burn them down. Something
to mull over. Until next time.