God, War, and Providence

The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England

By: James A. Warren

Narrated by: Bob Souer

A devout Puritan minister in 17th-century New England, Roger Williams was also a social critic, diplomat, theologian, and politician who fervently believed in tolerance. Banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, Williams purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and laid the foundations for the colony of Rhode Island as a place where Indian and English cultures could flourish side by side, in peace.

As the 17th century wore on, a steadily deepening antagonism developed between an expansionist, aggressive Puritan culture and an increasingly vulnerable, politically divided Indian population. Indian tribes that had been at the center of the New England communities found themselves shunted off to the margins of the region. By the 1660s, all the major Indian peoples in southern New England had come to accept English authority, either tacitly or explicitly. All, except one: the Narragansetts.

In God, War, and Providence James A. Warren tells the remarkable and little-known story of the alliance between Roger Williams's Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indians, and how they joined forces to retain their autonomy and their distinctive ways of life against Puritan encroachment.

©2018 James A. Warren (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Best Written Book on the Subject

This book reads like a novel bringing the characters and circumstances to life in a way that keeps the listener engaged and interested, without missing any of the important details and with the reminder that history has been - and remains - open to interpretation. I would recommend this to anyone new to the topic of Williams and the Narragansetts as well as anyone well versed in colonial New England and RI history.

The narrator is excellent. However, some of the Native American place names are mispronounced (at least based on the current local pronunciations like Cocumscussoc). It Is not distracting unless you know the current local pronunciation and will need to translate for context.

The Complexity and Diplomacy of early New England

I lived in Rhode Island for twelve years and my wife’s family had been there for over three hundred, and yet James Warren’s book taught me SO MUCH that I thought was long since tied down in the cobwebs of forgetfulness and buried in the dust of history. The book is readable, and, despite the intense complexity it shows us of the competition, division and diplomacy of New England in the 1600’s, would be comprehensible to a High School student today. I believe James Warren’s God, War, and Providence should be required reading for every High School student in Rhode Island.

Early american history at its finest.

A brilliantly told book that for me at least really made me feel for the Narragansett tribe and other early New England Native Americans. It also made you think how different America could have been if they had prevailed.

Thorough but one-sided?

This is an extremely well-researched and even scholarly study of Mr. Williams and his activities in the New World. The author does a commendable job of helping us see why his views were different from the prevailing ones among his Puritan brothers, particularly those in Boston, and what led him to start what became the state of Rhode Island. However, in his zeal to praise Williams, and by extension the various tribes that Williams befriended and interacted with linguistically, he villainizes the ruling Bostonians almost to the point of absurdity. For example, try reading chapter 9 and see if you can find a single sentence that doesn’t make them out to be the most evil folks on the face of the Earth. I personally can’t imagine the strength and courage it took to start an extension of Western civilization in an undeveloped wilderness thousands of miles from home, accessible only by a perilous three-month sailing voyage, and sparsely inhabited by Stone Age tribes who incidentally had a long tradition of fighting and killing each other before they started trying to do the same to the English. Perhaps in future studies the author will give the Puritans a bit of a break.

Interesting history

I did not know much about Roger Williams or his contributions to colonial life but found the book to be helpful to understand both the thinking of colonial life and the difficulty in having relations with the Indians that were beneficial to both parties. There was a substantial amount in the last few chapters about the many treaties between the colonials and the Indian which revealed a great deal about how each viewed the other one’s ability to keep the promises that they had made. The reader was exceptional.