Roger Williams
29 November 2014 -- 333/365
Providence, Rhode Island
Roger Williams, the founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, found himself at odds with the prevailing government from the day he arrived. As a Separatist, he made the somewhat unwise decision to settle in Puritan Boston instead of Separatist Salem. His views that the Church of England was fundamentally corrupt fostered a philosophy that demanded a complete separation between religious affairs and government. This didn't go over well in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was for all intents and purposes, a theocracy under Puritan rule. Williams spent time in Boston, Salem, and Plymouth, but found all of their respective religious practices too closely aligned with that of the Church of England and therefore both inadequate and corrupt. To make matters worse for Williams, his close association with the Wampanoags led him to question the validity and legality of the colonial charters. He took issue with the acquisition of Indian land without compensation to the local tribes, and went so far as to publicly challenge the authority of King James to issue the charters. He also denounced as a "Solemn Lie" the claim by King James to have been the first Christian monarch to have discovered the land that is now New England. By 1633, England had had enough, and Williams was formally charged with heresy and sedition. He was convicted in 1635 and ordered banished from the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies. Under cover of a blizzard, Williams fled Salem and walked 105 miles to the mouth of Narragansett Bay. He took shelter with the Massasoit of the Wampanoags, Ousamequin, and lived with them for three months before continuing up the bay. In 1636, with land deeded him from the Indian tribes, he founded the city of Providence.
Today's photo shows the Roger Williams Memorial at Prospect Park. The statue of Roger Williams overlooks the city he founded, and it is (hopefully) his final resting place. I say "hopefully" because his remains have moved around several times since his death in 1683. He was buried on his own property, as was the custom at the time. When the property was excavated in 1860, there was apparently not much left of Roger. An apple tree had grown over his grave, and a large root, eerily shaped like the body of a man, had apparently used his remains as fertilizer. (The root is on display at the John Brown House in Providence.) Dirt and what appeared to be congealed remains were moved to a crypt owned by John Randall in the newly built North Burial Ground in Providence. The monument you see here was finished in 1939, and the "dust from the grave of Roger Williams" was interred at the base of the statue.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, boost white, and protect highlights. A levels adjustment and a black and white gradient map at 30% opacity was added in PSE.
Here's the high res version in Smugmug:
http://kannafoot.smugmug.com/Photo-Challenges/PAD2014/i-ZB77xRC/0/XL/2014%2011%2029_0006%20copy-XL.jpg
