Fragile Freedom

In many ways it had earned the nickname Rogue’s Island. Founded by Roger Williams when he had been expelled from Massachusetts colony for sedition and heresy, it had become the home of what many considered the most radical elements of the Puritans population in the colonies. While the colony itself had grown and prospered as a Mercantile hub, especially with the rise of the Transatlantic slave trade, the radical, rogue nature of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations had remained. By 1764 a group of Loyalists known as the Tory Junto, concerned with the revolutionary streak that ran through the Colony would go as far as to petition the Court of St. James to repeal the Colonies Royal Charter and replace it with Royal Government. In the end they would fail. They would be chased from Rhode Island. The colony, on the other hand, would remain largely unchanged, with many committed to the cause of Independence even in those early days. That independent spirit that refused to relent to King and Parliament would beco