Roger Williams’s Providence

Park Ranger Sparkle Bryant discusses Roger Williams, a true revolutionary.

Roger Williams took a big leap of faith when he left England to come to the New World for a fresh start. Eventually banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for having new and dangerous opinions against the government, Williams founded Providence, where he put his revolutionary ideas into practice, creating a new form of government.

Join Park Ranger Sparkle Bryant as she discusses how Roger Williams’s struggles in early colonial New England led to his establishing a place where all could worship as their conscience dictated without interference from the government.

Sparkle Bryant started her career with the National Park Service in 1997 as a college intern at Morristown National Historical Park in New Jersey, her home state. In the fall of 1998, she moved to Rhode Island to join the team at Roger Williams National Memorial, where she has been stationed as a park ranger for over 20 years. She is a New Jersey City University graduate and now calls Providence home.