Providence
Williams's 1636 refuge for religious dissidents became jewelry capital (costume jewelry invented 1796), now Brown's $619M investment district. Tolerance as economic strategy.
Providence exists because Roger Williams refused to shut up. In 1636, the renegade minister was banished from Massachusetts for his 'new and dangerous opinions'—that church and state should be separate, that religious conscience was inviolable. He walked through winter to Narragansett Bay, where sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi granted him land. He named the settlement Providence, 'in thanks to God for protecting him during his exile.' It became the first place in the Western world where citizenship and religion were legally separated.
That founding logic—refuge for outsiders—shaped what came next. Jews, Quakers, Baptists, and other persecuted groups gathered at the bay. The harbor brought trade; trade brought industry. In 1796, silversmith Nehemiah Dodge learned to coat cheap brass with gold, inventing costume jewelry. By the 20th century, Rhode Island was the 'jewelry capital of the world,' Providence's Jewelry District the global center of an industry that required nothing but skilled hands and tolerance for immigrants willing to learn metalwork.
Jewelry manufacturing has declined, but the Jewelry District found new tenants. Brown University went 'all in' on Providence in 2015, investing $341 million in the neighborhood. The Warren Alpert Medical School relocated there in 2011, joining molecular medicine labs and innovation space. Since 2018, Brown has spent $619 million on Rhode Island construction. Today, the university employs 5,440 state residents with $477 million in annual payroll—the eighth-largest employer in Rhode Island.
Healthcare now dominates. Academic medicine generates $5 billion annually statewide. Rhode Island Hospital and Women & Infants are among the state's largest employers. Advanced manufacturing survives in submarine programs and offshore wind. Providence's Innovation and Design District anchors a talent pipeline from Brown, URI, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
By 2026, Providence tests whether a city built on tolerance can translate that into economic dynamism. The dissidents became jewelers; the jewelers became researchers. Williams's principle—liberty of conscience—still echoes in the Jewelry District's reinvention.