In 1636, Roger Williams was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and founded Rhode Island, because he supported A) women's suffrage. B) the abolition of slavery. C) a separation of church and state. D) westward expansion of the colonies.

The answer is C) of his defense of Native American rights and demand for separation of church and state. Williams was convinced that a state church had no Scriptural basis through his own experience of persecution by Archbishop Laud and the Anglican establishment, as well as the Baptists' writings and the bloody wars of religion that raged in Europe in that era. His criticism of the Massachusetts Bay system for mixing church and state immediately after his arrival demonstrates that Williams had arrived at this conclusion before landing in Boston in 1631.