Roger Williams - Founder of Rhode Island - Betsy Williams Cottage

i am in front of the cottage of betsy williams the great great granddaughter of roger williams the founder of rhode island and this ground is a very interesting very old she built her carriage in 1773 year after rhode islanders burned gaspee the hated british british ship that was uh used to enforce taxation and what many believe that 1772 burning gaspee was the beginning of american revolution so a year later here betsy built her cottage so let's take a look so as we approach here to the grounds where betsy williams and her sister lived they lived here till 1871 uh in which here they betsy bequeathed the property of 102 acres and the cottage to the city of providence which became the foundation of roger williams park so it's very interesting place here let's take a closer look it's fully restored as you can see let's see what the plug says there we go yep 102 acres and then the actual park con consists of 430 acres but this was the foundation of the roger williams park 102 acres that betsy williams donated to the city of providence look at this enormous tree so it is on a hill which is interesting they had a nice view let's take a closer look let's see what's on the other side that's the other side of the cottage let's peek inside the windows let's see if we can see anything on the inside i don't know here's a closer look at this massive tree right next to betsy williams house
as you can see there is pretty nice view from that hill but right behind right next to the cow the cottage is roger williams himself let's take a closer look so there is several monuments of roger williams and my understanding is they never knew what he looked like so his face i know in one of the monuments i don't know if it's on this one is the face of ted williams the baseball the famous baseball slugger roger williams arrived in boston 11 years after the pilgrims landed at plymouth so he arrived on february 5th 1631 with his wife mary so he preached at first at salem then at plymouth he was a chaplain and he was fairly controversial figure because he thought the state and the church should be separated from each other he was controversial enough that the locals wanted to ship him back to england so he had to run away and he did run away to rhode island where he purchased the land from narragansett chiefs canonicals and mayan tsunami and named his settlement providence in thanks to god so he made actually two trips back to england during his lifetime the first one was in june or july 1643 was to obtain a charter for his colony to forestall the attempt of neighboring colonies to take over providence he returned to the providence plantations in narragansett bay which incorporated providence newport and portsmouth during this voyage he produced his best know non-litera literary work key into the languages of america published 1643.He returned to england um in order to have the charter confirmed so he had to he was basically defending rhode island from the neighboring massachusetts and connecticut trying to take over rhode island so not only he has found rhode island but he successfully defended from the neighboring states and so we have survived rhode island is obviously state right now and alive very very well except for some corruption of course that's going on and guess what is right across from betsy williams house kasmir version puwavsky polish hero polish general who came to fight for american freedom kasmir puwavsky was promoted to brigadier general by us congress in 1777 and he had an incredible military talent and experience and george washington really appreciate that having him next to him and yes he became the father of american cavalry so powavsky landed in boston in 1777
eager to join the american continental army to fight the british he unfortunately had to wait to be officially enlisted as uh general george washington informed him personally he said to him he needed the approval of the continental congress before joining under third pulaski refused to wait for official approval before jumping into one of the most important battles of the war at the critical moment the battle of brandywine as the british forced the americans off the field on the 11th of september washington realized to his horror that the right flank of his army was about to collapse potentially causing a general route and destroying his army in the flash powaski volunteered to counter charge the british and give the continentals time to withdraw in good order with no time to argue washington entrusted pulavsky with his own mounted guard about 30 in number and watched as the polish volunteer led his band directly into the fray delaying the british long enough for the continentals to retreat and possibly saving washington's life for this guaranteed congress immediately commissioned him as a brigadier general with the honourable commander of the horse he also took part in battle of germantown the following month