> the state began when roger williams founded an illegal squatter colony in 1636 as a refuge for religious dissidents from the puritan theocracy of the bay colony. williams granted its inhabitants total freedom of belief--jews, unitarians, atheists, quakers were all welcome--he was 130 years ahead of his time in his views on religious liberty. london finally granted an official charter to the settlements in 1648 and they were combined into one colony in 1663.[9]
United States