According to Warren Town Historian Virginia Baker in 1904, Roger Williams was sheltered by the Pokanoket Massasoit Ousamequin for 14 weeks in the winter of 1636 after Williams was banished from Salem, MA, and walked the sixty miles to Sowams, the Massasoit’s home in what today is Warren, RI. Following his recovery from an illness, he went on to Omega Pond and then to found Providence, RI. Click here for a 36-minute video of the walk to the Cave.
Warren resident and Providence College Faculty Member Keith Morton led a group that included three members of the Pokanoket Tribe on a walk from his property to Margaret’s Cave in nearby Swansea on July 25, 2020.
(Above, left) George Gustafson, his friend Chris Howard and his daughter, Elizabeth, join the group as they walk past Keith Morton’s farm. (Above, right) Marc Kohler and Marc Canuel examine the inside of the Cave with Pokanoket Tribe member Yvonne Birgadano (Storyteller).
(Above, left) Keith presents his view of Roger Williams to Marc, who leads a Roger Williams Study Group. (Above, right) Elizabeth, Chris, George and Marc examine the spot where Williams was said to have spent 14 weeks in the winter of 1636 in the care of Margaret, a Pokanoket wife of the Massasoit Ousamequin.
