The region consisted of over 60 settlements under the authority of Chief Massasoit (sometimes called Osamequin) who controlled the land from Plymouth to the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay.

[2] Winslow and John Hampden saved Massasoit's life two years later and gained an important ally and lifelong friend.

Warren was the original home of Brown University, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

The school registered its first students in 1765 and was the Baptist answer to Congregationalist Yale and Harvard, Presbyterian Princeton, and Episcopalian Penn and Columbia.

The American Revolutionary War seriously affected Warren's commercial prosperity, and the town was subject to British raids in 1778 along with the rest of the region.

Commerce revived within the decade after the Revolution until the middle of the 19th century, and Warren was famous for the fine vessels launched from its yards.

These vessels were largely commanded and operated by Warren crews, and they engaged in whaling, merchant service, and the West India trade.

With the decline of the whaling industry and related seafaring commerce toward the middle of the 19th century, business attention turned to textile manufacturing.

The town is a part of Rhode Island's 1st congressional district at the federal level and is presently represented by Democrat Gabe Amo.