Legacy Presentations
The Legacy of Roger Williams
Rhode Island's founder Roger Williams and fellow religious refugee Anne Hutchinson discuss issues leading up to their respective banishment from Puritan Massachusetts during the 1630's. Among these issues are freedom of conscience, limits upon dissent established by governing authorities, the separation of church and state, and the goals of the societies then emerging in the New World.
From Field to Factory:
Samuel Slater Gathers a Workforce
Focuses on the effects of the Industrial Revolution gathering force in the United States in the early 1790's. The state's earliest industrialist, Slater, works to persuade impoverished mother Mrs. Arnold to send her twelve children to work in his mill. This dramatization of the enormous changes involved in the shift from an agricultural to an industrial way of life also stimulates discussion about child labor, paternalism, and environmental responsibility.