Q 01/05

When Providence opened Roger Williams's grave in 1860, what had grown into the shape of a human body?

A) A grapevine

B) A blackberry bramble

C) An apple tree root

D) An oak sapling

Answer · why

C) An apple tree root

An apple tree root had followed his spine, split at the hips and bent at the knees. The Rhode Island Historical Society has looked after the root ever...

Q 02/05

How did Providence workers accidentally destroy Slate Rock, the traditional landing place of Roger Williams, in 1877?

A) Blew it up with dynamite

B) Buried it under a new road

C) Cut it into paving stones

D) Dropped it in the river

Answer · why

A) Blew it up with dynamite

City workers blew it up with dynamite while trying to uncover a buried part of the boulder, and it was blasted to pieces. A monument in Roger Williams...

Q 03/05

Narragansetts greeted Roger Williams in 1636 by calling "What cheer, netop"; what does netop mean?

A) Stranger

B) Friend

C) Preacher

D) Englishman

Answer · why

B) Friend

Friend is what netop means in Narragansett. "What cheer" was casual English for hello, so the welcome mixed two languages in three words.

Q 04/05

Which animal's name did Roger Williams's 1643 phrase book of the Narragansett language help to popularize in English?

A) Caribou

B) Coyote

C) Opossum

D) Moose

Answer · why

D) Moose

Moose is among the words his book A Key into the Language of America helped popularize, along with squash, succotash and powwow. He wrote it at sea on...

Q 05/05

Which disaster destroyed the church records of Roger Williams's birth, leaving his exact birthday a mystery?

A) The Great Fire of London

B) A flood of the River Thames

C) The English Civil War

D) A wartime bombing raid

Answer · why

A) The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London swept through St Sepulchre's Church in 1666, and the parish registers went with it. Williams gave conflicting accounts of his...