Roger Williams— his name is everywhere in Rhode Island. But how much do we really know about him? Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, Professor of History at Roger Williams University, believes that one way to understand Roger Williams and the complexity of his life is to read documents created during his lifetime .Professor Carrington-Farmer spoke at the Peace Dale Museum of Art and Culture on April 3, 2025 about Roger Williams’s personal, political, and spiritual worlds and how the documents in her new book help us understand them. Click here for the 72-minute video of her talk.

Professor Carrington-Farmer’s new book, Roger Williams and His World: A History in Documents, reproduces forty documents that illuminate Williams’s world, his beliefs, and his interactions with others.

Carrington-Farmer explains each document in the context of William’s life and times by defining 17th century words and concepts, and she invites us to read the original text and decide for ourselves what it tells us about Williams.

She describes his youth in London, his move to New England, and banishment from Salem, which ressulted in starting his settlement in Providence.