BROWN UNIVERSITY
In 1775 Brown University decided to forgo the usual public Commencement and celebration due to:
Rhode Island was known for its religious tolerance since the founders left Massachusetts after being persecuted by the Puritans. However, this was a remarkable policy for its time. Brown was a Baptist school and the President was a Baptist Minister, yet other Protestant denominations, Catholics, Jews were all welcome to attend. The toleration however did not extend to atheists. See {82626} .
This historical quotation was typical of the few colleges in America at the end of the18th century. Note that the school was open to anyone who would pay the tuition. Also that 14 years after the America Revolution and independence, English money was the currency for most transactions in the early United States.
Brown University is a private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, it is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.
