🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Roger Williams National Memorial

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States with us as we approach the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and American Independence. Get out your homeschool atlas and almanac and follow along!)

Rhode Island is our homeschool state-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of Rhode Island’s most important historic places: the Roger Williams National Memorial.

The Roger Williams National Memorial is a small urban park that commemorates the first settlement of Providence, Rhode Island, and Roger Williams’ dedication to the principle of religious liberty. It was

established by Congress in 1965 to commemorate Williams’s “outstanding contributions to the development of the principles of freedom in this country.” The memorial, a 4.5 acre urban greenspace located at the foot of College Hill in downtown Providence, includes a freshwater spring which was the center of the settlement of Providence Plantations, founded by Williams in 1636. It is on this site that Williams, through word and action, fought for the ideal that religion must not be subject to regulation by the government. Instead, that it should be a matter of individual conscience. It was a remarkable journey that brought Williams to a place called Moshassuck (he later named it Providence) where he put his beliefs into practice, giving “shelter for persons distressed of conscience.” (nps.gov)

You can find a wealth of additional information about the park’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the website for the Roger Williams National Memorial from the National Park Service, and also on the park’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What historical American treasures are you and your students exploring in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you'll find a special "Print" button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don't want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡