Claim: Providence, Rhode Island was founded by an exile from an English settlement.

Roger Williams -LRB- c. 21 December 1603 -- between 27 January and 15 March 1683 -RRB- was a Puritan , an English Reformed theologian , and later a Reformed Baptist who was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the colony of Massachusetts because local officials thought that he was spreading `` new and dangerous ideas '' to his congregants . Williams fled the Massachusetts colony under the threat of impending arrest and shipment to an English prison ; he began the settlement of Providence Plantation in 1636 as a refuge offering freedom of conscience .   Williams was the 1638 founder of the First Baptist Church in America , also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence .   Williams was also a student of Native American languages , an early advocate for fair dealings with American Indians , and one of the first abolitionists in North America , having organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the British American colonies . He is best remembered as the originator of the principle of separation of church and state .