May 29: Rhode Island Ratifies the Constitution (1790)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people and governments to respect freedom of religion.
History Note
Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683) was an English minister who believed that the government and church should be separate and that people should have religious freedom. In the 17th century, most of the English colonies in America had an official (or “established”) church, and sometimes people who disagreed with that church were persecuted.
Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts because of his beliefs. He moved south and established a new community after making an agreement with Canonicus and Miantonomo, two leaders of the Narragansett people. Williams later wrote:
[H]aving made covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all the sachems and natives round about us and having, in a sense of God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress, called the place PROVIDENCE, I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience.
Williams formed the first Baptist church in America. Rhode Island welcomed Jews, Quakers, French Huguenots, and others who wanted a place where they could freely practice their religion.
During the American Revolution, Rhode Island agreed to the Articles of Confederation. However, when people gathered for a constitutional convention in 1787, Rhode Island refused to send delegates. Even after twelve states had ratified the Constitution, Rhode Island was the lone holdout.
People in Rhode Island objected to the Constitution for several reasons, but some were concerned that it did not contain a Bill of Rights. The new U.S. Congress proposed several amendments to the Constitution addressing this issue in September 1789.
Delegates at a meeting in Rhode Island finally agreed to the Constitution on May 29, 1790, by a vote of 34 to 32. These delegates had previously put forward a Declaration of Rights that included this statement:
That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction, and not by force or violence—and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular religious sect, or society, ought to be favored or established by law, in preference to others.
The United States approved ten constitutional amendments in 1791, which are known as the Bill of Rights. The first amendment endorses the idea of religious liberty with these words:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .
The Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence, Rhode Island, features exhibits about religious freedom. Photo by EWY Media / Shutterstock.com.
Learn More
This video summarizes Roger William’s understanding of religious freedom.
Find other resources at Homeschool History.
