Roger Williams was a English minister who came to Massachusetts in 1630. He soon began to disagree with the other Puritan ministers, and there was talk of shipping him back to England. He also spent a lot of time with the Indians, and objected to how the Puritans were treating them. In 1636 he fled Massachusetts for the wilderness and started the town of Providence Rode Island.
Roger Williams was a leading proponent of separation of church and state. Rode Island became the first colony that had religious freedom. Williams taught that a person had to have a personal religious experience to join a church. This was a huge idea, and the beginning of american evangelism. Before this, church membership was automatic. Williams is claimed as America's first baptist, and first quaker.