Providence was founded in 1636 by renegade preacher Roger Williams, who was forced to flee Massachusetts because of religious persecution. Williams purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and started a new settlement with a policy of religious and political freedom.
The Puritans disagreed with Williams’s religious views. He named his new settlement “Providence,” claiming providence had brought him there. Williams was followed by other religious exiles who founded Pocasset, now Portsmouth, in 1638 and Newport in 1639. This religious plurality extended beyond the Christian faiths. Touro Synagogue (founded in 1763) is the oldest synagogue in the U.S.