Engraving, left: When Roger Williams fled Massachusetts in February of 1636, he was joined that spring by several other followers including a man named Joshua Verin, a rope maker and the son of Phillip Verin of Salem. By the summer of 1636, Roger had negotiated an agreement with the Narragansett for the land that became Providence, and founded a colony unique in its commitment to full liberty in religious beliefs.
In this new colony, Joshua Verin and his wife Jane obtained the lot next to Roger Williams. Joshua chose not to attend the religious meetings held in those early days at Roger’s house. This choice would not have been possible in the Massachusetts Bay or Plymouth colonies, where church attendance was mandatory. Against her husband’s wishes, Joshua’s wife Jane began regularly attending the religious meetings at Roger’s house. For this disobedience, Joshua beat her. As Williams described in a letter to Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop in May 1638,
“…he hath trodden her under foote tyrannically and brutishly: which she and we long bearing though with his furious blows she went in danger of Life…”.
Town members met to reprimand Verin for his brutal behavior and for violating his wife’s liberty of conscience. Counter opinions raised by Providence resident William Arnold and others in support of Joshua Verin argued that the town’s vote would “breach (an) ordinance of God, the subjection of wives to their husbands,” were to no avail. Instead “the major vote of us discard him from our Civill Freedome.” The town voted to disenfranchise Joshua, casting him out of Providence Colony for violating his wife’s freedom of conscience.
Joshua Verin returned to Salem. Sadly, he compelled his wife to accompany him. Of this Roger wrote: “He will hale his wife with ropes to Salem, where she must needes be troubled and . . .
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: LIFE LINCOLN: An Intimate Portrait, by The Editors of LIFE (1 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block B: LIFE LINCOLN: An Intimate Portrait, by The Editors of LIFE (2 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: LIFE LINCOLN: An Intimate Portrait, by The Editors of LIFE (3 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: LIFE LINCOLN: An Intimate Portrait, by The Editors of LIFE (4 of 4)
 
Hour Two
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block A: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, by John M. Barry (1 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, by John M. Barry (2 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, by John M. Barry (3 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, by John M. Barry (4 of 4)
 
Hour Three
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: Such Troops as These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, by Bevin Alexander (1 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Such Troops as These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, by Bevin Alexander (2 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Such Troops as These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, by Bevin Alexander (3 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: Such Troops as These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, by Bevin Alexander (4 of 4)
 
Hour Four
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway, by Elliot Carlson and Rear Adm. Donald "Mac" Showers USN (Ret.) (1 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway, by Elliot Carlson and Rear Adm. Donald "Mac" Showers USN (Ret.) (2 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway, by Elliot Carlson and Rear Adm. Donald "Mac" Showers USN (Ret.) (3 of 4)
Sunday 27 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway, by Elliot Carlson and Rear Adm. Donald "Mac" Showers USN (Ret.) (4 of 4)