Roger Williams and His World Talk with Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer and John McNiff

Join the RIHS on Tuesday, January 28th, at 6pm at the Wild Colonial Tavern for a conversation between Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer and retired National Park Ranger and historical reenactor John McNiff on Carrington-Farmer’s new book Roger Williams and His World: A History in Documents. 

In this talk, Dr. Carrington-Farmer will discuss with McNiff, who will portray Williams, how her new collection takes the most written-about person of 17th-century New England and makes his words more accessible to a wide audience. Dr. Carrington-Farmer and McNiff will also touch on aspects of William’s life, such as the founding of Providence, his revolutionary views on religious freedom and the separation of church and state, the wide-ranging interactions he had with Indigenous peoples, and their different approaches to bringing Williams’s legacy to contemporary Rhode Islanders.

Charlotte Carrington-Farmer received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and specializes in early American history. Her book, Roger Williams and His World (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, Jan. 2025), sets Roger Williams in his wider Atlantic world context. Her research centers on dissent in seventeenth-century New England, and she has published book chapters on Thomas Morton and Roger Williams, and an article on Mary Williams. She has published a journal article and two book chapters on equines in colonial New England and the early modern Atlantic world. Her current book project is titled: Equine Atlantic: New England’s Horse Trade to the West Indies in the 18th Century. She is active in the field of public history and has received funding and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Yale University, the Mellon Foundation, and the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium.

John McNiff was born and brought up in RI. He attended Rhode Island College and received his BA in History with a minor in Anthropology in 1979. He spent the summer of 1980 studying archaeology in England, and then came back to the US where he worked as a commercial fisherman, in sales, and advertising. He received his MA in Anthropology from Binghamton University in NY in 1990. He worked with the Public Archaeology Lab, Inc. of Pawtucket, RI, and Rhode Island College’s Public Archaeology Program, on hundreds of archaeological projects around New England. In 1996 John began working with the National Park Service and in 1997 was stationed as a Park Ranger at the Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence. Over the next 27 years, McNiff delved deep into the history of Roger Williams and became the content expert on Williams at the National Memorial. An accomplished public speaker and historic interpreter, Ranger John presented literally countless public programs for schools, libraries, historical societies, retirement groups, scouts, religious groups, family groups and visitors from all over the world.

Admission to this program is free, but registration is required. Guests can register here.