A Lively Experiment

A Multireligious Historical Overview of Rhode Island



Photo © 2003 The Pluralism Project



Caption









Roger Williams and the first European settlers of Rhode Island attempted to establish respectful relationships with its native peoples, but during King Philip's War the combined forces of other colonies (Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut) massacred and "decisively defeated" Rhode Island's natives in a battle known as the Great Swamp Fight of 1675. This battle took place in a large swamp in what is now South Kingstown, Rhode Island, and a marker on the site commemorates that tragic event from which the native peoples have never fully recovered.



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A terse and barely-legible marker stands at the entrance to the Great Swamp in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, where the Great Swamp Fight against the Narragansett Tribe occurred in 1675. The marker reads: "Three-quarters of a mile to the southward on an island in the Great Swamp the Narragansett Indians were decisively defeated by the united forces of the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Plymouth colonies, Sunday, December 19, 1675."