1.5: Anne Hutchinson, Rhode Island Rebel

Free speech is a hallmark of American life enshrined in the Bill of Rights.  However, speaking one's mind wasn't always a viable option in the early Puritan communities that dotted New England in the first half of the 1600's.  This possibility diminished even further when a woman was the one doing the speaking, and in most instances, challenging the status quo.  This episode of History: Beyond the Textbook continues the religious dynamic of our previous episode, and once again explores English settlement of New England, but does so through the lens of Anne Hutchinson, the Rhode Island Rebel.

Key People
Anne Hutchinson, midwife and religious dissenter
John Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay Colony politician
Roger Williams, religious dissenter

Key Events
Antinomian controversy
Banishment of Anne Hutchinson

We're back for Season Four of History: Beyond the Textbook! This season will focus on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Federalist Era" in the years roughly 1789-1800. The first six episodes will release every Tuesday from October 28-December 2, while the second six episodes will be released every Tuesday from February 17-March 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," Season Two, "America's Revolution," and Season Three, "America's Crucial Years," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

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Transcript

Free expression.  Free speech.  Call it whatever you will, but most Americans can correctly identify the right that they have to speak their minds and openly criticize their elected and appointed political officials without the fear of arrest (yes, there are some exceptions, but you get the idea).  It certainly strikes one as a very American idea, this notion that we have a fundamental right to say whatever we want, and then continue to go about our lives.  One of the common refrains about the origin story of the United States is that the initial migrants sought religious freedom, or the right to worship in the way they saw fit.  Our last episode on Steohen Hopkins revealed that there is certainly a grain of truth to this idea, if you analyze migration from an Anglo perspective.  However, this freedom to worship is also tied to the right to speak freely, which was a concept that wasn’t always welcome in the early Puritan settlements that morphed into the New England colonies. Today’s story focuses on a bold and undaunted woman who blazed a trail for those who hold this right so near and dear to their hearts.  Hers is a story that is grounded not only in religious thought and philosophy, but also the right to gather with whom one chooses to discuss ideas that may be deemed controversial.  This story includes famed Puritan John Winthrop in a role as the primary antagonist, and the equally vocal and stubborn Roger Williams as a secondary character who lent his support to the accused.  We will even witness the formation of a new colony that earned the disdain not only of Massachusetts Bay, but all other New England colonies that surrounded it.  Our focus for this week’s episode is a woman willing to stand up for what she felt was right, and who publicly put herself on the line with the understanding that there may be serious repercussions for her words and actions.  Today on History: Beyond the Textbook, we explore the Rhode Island rebel herself, Anne Hutchinson.

Act One: Initial Dissent 

So, why did Anne Hutchinson deviate from what was considered to be established “Puritan” norms and doctrine?  She settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was established in part by John Winthrop, a man who envisioned that his fellow Puritans would establish a mighty “city upon a hill” that would serve as an example for the rest of the world as to how to build, and run, an orderly, Godly society.  Winthrop was also more moderate in his outlook; pious and certainly firm, but a moderate who enjoyed success working with all types of people.  Not everyone was willing to bend to his notion of what society should be, or even what a “Godly society” should be.  To understand what led to the rise of Anne Hutchinson and the ideas, like Antinomianism, that led to her eventual banishment, we’ll bring in a strong secondary character for some additional context: the charismatic Roger Williams.  Williams can be considered part of the “initial wave” of the Puritan Great migration as he arrived in Massachusetts in 1631…and was immediately offered a position as a teacher in a Boston church.  Williams turned it down, to the dismay of church officials, and it wasn’t the only time that he would “disappoint” the powers-that-be in Massachusetts.  In a little over one decade, Williams left Boston for Salem, then traveled to Plymouth, then went back to Salem, was banished from Massachusetts back to England, escaped this banishment and lived among the Narragansett, and played a crucial role founding what would be chartered as the colony of Rhode Island.

What on Earth could this man have said, or done, that made him so controversial as to be politely or legally required to leave so many locations, setting the stage for Hutchinson’s own banishment?  For starters, Williams was stubborn as can be, and refused to budge or compromise his principles in any way…especially the ones that he saw as an insult to his deep-seated faith.  There were two theological issues that really got Williams in trouble.  The first was his personal belief in Separatism, which was what so many of those Plymouth-bound individuals in our Stephen Hopkins episode subscribed to.  Williams arrived to discover that the Anglican church in Boston, the same one that offered him a teaching post, was still just that…Anglican.  The vast Atlantic Ocean served as a physical barrier between Boston and Great Britain, but Williams insisted that they had never truly broken away in the spiritual sense.  He was distraught by the fact that there was no public declaration of separation from what he considered to be the corrupt Anglican Church…never mind the hard work that Winthrop put in prior to his departure to ensure English officials that their efforts were not Separatist.  This was just the start…he brought up Separatism in Salem, which is why he left the first time, got chased out of Plymouth for these same ideas, and even though he was allowed to remain in Salem for two years upon his return, his ideas grew increasingly radical.  For instance, he came to believe in Anabaptism, which holds that the only individuals who can undergo baptism are adults that are fully capable of understanding the decision they are making and the salvation that they are to receive.  Infants need not apply.  There are certainly more ideas that Williams publicized, and he was consistently called in front of the General Court to recant his views…but he doubled down on them nearly every time.  He soon willingly gave up the ritual of formal religion and preferred a more secluded life away from English settlement among the Narragansett, whom he viewed as the rightful owners of the land to which Massachusetts Bay Colony laid claim (more on that in our next episode).

Despite all of this controversy, Williams was an esteemed figure, for even John Winthrop saw fit to help him evade capture when he was banished from Massachusetts.  He also happened to be an outlier of sorts…most individuals who challenged the authorities of Massachusetts, especially on matters concerning religion and spirituality, did not receive the same respectful treatment.  Most were received with disdain, both among the General Court as well as the court of public opinion.  Many of them were unceremoniously shown the door, and our main subject is among them, but Anne Hutchinson stands out because she not only was female, but she very eloquently defended her claims in front of an often-hostile General Court.  Most of what we know about Mrs. Hutchinson is filtered through the lens of her detractors, so it can be challenging to piece together her narrative, but her story and struggle help us comprehend the role that she played in challenging the civil and religious authorities of Massachusetts, the story of how Rhode Island came to serve as an outlet for those disenfranchised with those same authorities, and fervor that was caused when a woman was bold enough to stand up for her beliefs.

Act Two: Anne’s Ideas

So, who exactly was Anne Hutchinson, this woman who would go on to cause so much controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony?  Anne was born July 17, 1591, three years after the English navy prevented the Spanish Armada from overrunning the British Isles.  Anne was well-schooled in dissidence from an early age: her father was Francis Marbury, a well-known Puritan minister and teacher who was educated in Cambridge and was known to challenge the Anglican Church on a consistent basis.  Thirteen years before Anne’s birth, Francis stood trial in London on charges of heresy, and was even serving mandated house arrest in the first three years of Anne’s life, so there was plenty of time for him to begin impressing upon his third child with Bridget Dryden, his second wife.  Reverend Marbury encouraged the reading of the Holy Bible, which was not at all unusual, but he also read a book about religious martyrs to his children (of which his second wife would bore 15 in total, 12 of which would survive infancy).  However, three years of house arrest grated on him, and once it was done, he decided to refrain from his public criticism of the Anglican Church (note the word “public”): this led to an appointment as a pastor in a northern London parish.  Anne was 14, and she would be moving to a capital city that had just transitioned from Queen Elizabeth I to King James I.  In fact, the week after she arrived, Guy Fawkes and his followers were implicated in the “Gunpowder Plot” to blow up Parliament.  Unfortunately, the time spent in London with her father would be short, for Francis would die in 1611 at age 55, imparting to his now 19-year old daughter Anne the ideas of the importance of education and the necessity of questioning church authorities, no matter how harsh the consequences may be.

Two years following her father’s death, the 21-year old Anne married William Hutchinson, who was five years her senior., when the former was 21 years old.  The two had previously known one another, so this match wasn’t completely out of left field.  William was involved in the cloth trade, and enjoyed a fair degree of success in this business.  Winthrop described him as fairly even-keeled and fair-tempered, but weak and overshadowed by his strong-willed wife; makes sense given Winthrop’s disdain for Anne and her beliefs.  The two moved to Alford, located in the northeastern portion of England, to raise a growing family and allow William’s business to flourish.  It was here where William and Anne began to listen to, and adopt the ideas of, Reverend John Cotton.  Cotton was, by most accounts, an absolutely brilliant man who tended to his flock at St. Botolph’s in Boston (that’s Boston, England), about 20 miles from Alford, for over two decades.  Cotton grew to believe that true Christianity was experienced in a deeply personal way: one must directly receive God’s grace in order to be saved.  He also was of the opinion that receiving God’s grace had nothing to do with one’s actions, meaning that only a select few could enjoy this honor.  The beliefs of John Calvin and his concept of predestination are most certainly present, and Cotton even identified those within his parish that he felt had received this gift and conducted secret, selective services for them.  This particular ideology would simultaneously challenge the Puritan doctrine of living a godly life regardless of one’s predestined status, while also appealing to women whose lives were dictated by the men surrounding them.  Thus, Anne and William made the journey to hear Cotton preach as often as possible, and began to follow his word.

Anne formally arrived in New England with William and ten of her children in 1634; Cotton had left the previous year, and it’s no accident that Anne followed him across the Atlantic.  Two of her family had made the journey the year before, and now Anne’s brood followed along with three additional family members and two servants.  William achieved considerable financial success back in England due to his connections in London, so he and his sons immediately set to work entering the potentially prosperous world of Trans-Atlantic commerce.  In addition to rearing her children, Anne focused more on the spiritual, as opposed to the material world of her husband.  Remember that much of what we know, or think we know, about Anne Hutchinson is filtered through secondhand sources such as John Winthrop.  In his estimation, the two main views she held that Winthrop disagreed with were, to quote, “That the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person.  That no sanctification [behavior, piety, zeal] can help to evidence to us our justification.”  Influenced by her father in the ways of dissent, Anne had certainly taken the teachings of John Cotton to heart.  She then took them to another level when she began to hold discussions of recent sermons in her home, the first of which was more of an informal gathering of about five women.  Those initial attendees were female-only, but men eventually began to appear, and soon 60-80 residents at a time would attend her now bi-weely meetings.  The meetings morphed from simple discussions of sermons to stinging rebukes of the teachings of all clergymen…save for Cotton and her brother-in-law, Reverend John Wheelwright.  Meetings such as this were part of Puritan tradition where discussions of scripture of the day’s sermon would occur following service, but for a woman to brazenly speak out against Church authorities…well, this was uncharted territory for Massachusetts Bay.  And Anne would be forced to answer for her behavior.  

Act Three: Facing Trial

Anne’s meetings caught the attention of the leadership of Massachusetts in  the fall of 1636, and she was summoned before the General Court for a closed session.  Allegedly, a Boston woodcutter was told by a local man, “I’ll bring you to a woman that preaches better Gospel than any of your blackcoats,” slang for Anglican ministers.  This woodcutter went straight to the authorities, who vowed to get to the bottom of it.  This session of the Court included the commissioners, as well as the accused: Hutchinson, Cotton, and Wheelwright.  Cotton acted the way he had his entire career: he made peace with his accusers, and that was that.  Hutchinson and Wheelwright refused to recant, and while both would feel the wrath of the Massachusetts authorities, Anne bore the brunt of this ill-will.  Her family was very prominent in the colony: William was elected to the General Court within six weeks of his initial arrival, and Anne was respected for her role and experience as a midwife.  Anne was told that she needed to cease with her meetings, which had only aroused ire once men began to attend, and as you might have guessed, she did no such thing.  So it was against this backdrop that Anne underwent cross-examination by the leaders of Massachusetts Bay one year later in November 1637.  As previously noted, the unorthodox views of Roger Williams caused a stir, but he was a respected man in the community, and was thus allowed to voluntarily leave.  Here was a woman whose views were also causing a stir, but her ordeal would end very differently.  The charges?  Heresy and sedition.  She challenged dominant religious views, and was considered to be fermenting the equivalent of intellectual rebellion.  

As we stand on the edge of what would stretch into a two-day trial, it helps to provide clarity on the concept of “Antinomianism,” which was the name attached to the controversy running through the colony at this time.  The word is a composite of two Greek words: anti is “against,” and nomes is “law,” and the simple version is that Antinomians believe that personal faith, and even the direct reception of God’s grace, are sufficient enough to enter Heaven.  The actions of one’s life on Earth, including following Church ritual and adhering to laws such as the Ten Commandments, are seen as unnecessary.  The time frame 1636-1638 is often viewed in the context of an “Antinomian Controversy” in which Massachusetts leaders faced enemies both foreign and domestic.  The “foreign” enemies were the Pequots who, in English eyes, refused to submit to and follow ways of life that would bring them prosperity; the Pequot War, which we shall learn about next week and occurred during this time, settled that issue.  Anne Hutchinson provided a human face to the so-called “domestic” enemies: she held meetings in her home, appeared to encourage individual thought, and critiqued beliefs that were viewed as accepted and orthodox.  She had to be silenced and made an example of.

That example, or what Governor Winthrop hoped would be an example, began with a trial that has been well-documented and highly scrutinized.  Prior to this point, Wheelwright had been given fourteen days to leave Massachusetts Bay, nearly 20 others received alternate punishments, and ten individuals claimed to have seen the error of their ways and were exonerated.  Therefore, Hutchinson’s trial was the main event, and she was the primary attraction.  Winthrop opened the proceedings by explaining the reasons why Anne had been summoned to court, but never actually charged her with anything.  Hutchinson was far too clever to let this slip by without any hint of acknowledgement, so she responded by stating, “I am called here to answer before you but I hear no things laid to my charge.”  This back-and-forth game of exchanges went on for some time, with Winthrop eventually stating that Hutchinson broke the Fifth Commandment (which is honor thy mother and father), and that it was wrong of her to allow men to attend her meetings.  Hutchinson, in her responses, never outright admitted that men were in attendance, but when presented with a hypothetical situation by Winthrop, she replied, “Do you think it not lawful for me to teach women, and why do you call me to teach the court?”  That was certainly not the expected response, and Winthrop had to compose himself before moving on.  Not all questions or examiners were accusatory: 33-year old Simon Bradstreet claimed that he believed Hutchinson’s meetings to be lawful, but that she should cease to lead them “because it gives offense.”  Even those who were on her side felt she should stop rocking the boat.

Others, such as Deputy Governor Dudley, began to chime in.  Dudley went after her for her criticisms of all ministers save for Cotton… to which Hutchinson simply asked him for proof.  It was the same story for the subsequent clergymen who offered testimony and accusations: Anne demanded proof, witnesses, anything beyond the hearsay with which she was facing.  The star witness for the prosecution in this case was none other than Reverend John Cotton, who had no problem previously distancing himself from Reverend Wheelwright, but fumbled over his words when questioned about the intellectually superior Hutchinson.  He was point-blank asked about reports that Hutchinson had defamed ministers in her meetings, and Cotton replied, “I do not remember it.”  Immediately following this claim, Hutchinson delivered what was her longest response to date, but also her most controversial.  Hutchinson spoke about the voices who spoke the “truth” to her, and when pressed about how she received these voices, she said, “by an immediate revelation.”  This opened the floodgates, and when all was said and done, banishment would be the punishment.  Hutchinson asked, “Wherefore am I banished,” and Winthrop retorted, “Say no more, the Court knows wherefore and is satisfied.”  Defiant to the last, Hutchinson refused to back down…and it cost her dearly.

Act Four: Rebel to the end

So it was that Anne Hutchinson was formally ordered to leave Massachusetts Bay..  What else happened to Anne that is worth noting, and what is the legacy of her actions?  Anne spent a large portion of the following winter jailed in isolation awaiting her exile, and much like her father when he was under house arrest, she continued to study scripture and contemplate the word of God.  She was also pregnant for the sixteenth time and would become a grandmother during this time.  Meanwhile, the men of her family decided that it would be best if they formed a settlement of their own.  None other than Roger WIlliams stepped up and convinced them that they should settle on Aquidneck Island, which today contains the towns of Portsmouth, Middletown, and Newport.  He founded Providence Plantation upon his exile two years earlier, and he reasoned that this area would provide them with all of the resources necessary for settlement.  William and about a dozen of Anne’s most fervent male supporters signed an agreement to become the proprietors of Rhode Island,  and they were off.  Meanwhile, Anne was allowed to return to her home prior to her banishment, and she was even tried again under various charges, namely that she denied the immortality of the human soul.  Anne continued to advocate for herself…but unfortunately, most of her male supporters were in Rhode Island and thus couldn’t speak on her behalf.  It was also at this trial where Reverend Cotton officially severed his ties to his formerly prized pupil.  To summarize a very formal, and often lengthy, process, Anne Hutchinson was officially banished from the Church on March 22, 1638, and it was time to go.

Anne struck out for Rhode Island in April when the snow was up to her thighs.  The walk took six days…and she was still pregnant when she made it.  She reached her new home the second week of April and was finally reunited with William after half a year apart.  Their settlement was to be called Portsmouth, and the initial English inhabitants consisted of several dozen of Anne’s supporters.  It certainly wasn’t harmonious at all times: the next year, a group separated from the Hutchinsons and founded the settlement of Newport on the southern portion of Aquidneck Island.  As to the remaining years of Anne’s life?  John Winthrop continued to keep a shockingly close eye on her from Boston, writing in 1641 that she was adhering to Anabaptism, much like Roger Williams had.  She apparently wrote a letter to clarify her position, but no record of what was in this letter survives.  Her husband William died around this time, and given the political turmoil and uncertainty surrounding their new settlement, Anne decided to move yet again.  Even though Rhode Island had already earned an unsavory reputation as a refuge for those with heretical views, Anne felt as though it would be best for her to take her chances elsewhere.  However, her move to the Dutch-controlled New Netherland would be short-lived; she was killed by Siwanot warriors in July 1643.  Ironically, she had made friends with the Narragansetts while in Rhode Island, and staunchly opposed military actions against the Pequots during her trial.  The proud and defiant Anne Hutchinson was only 52 years old.

What of a legacy?  Massachusetts zealously pursued all followers of Hutchinson, and within 18 months of her exodus, they succeeded in driving out her influence for good.  Nearly all of her adherents had either been forcibly exiled or had voluntarily abandoned Massachusetts Bay, with many of them settling in Rhode Island.  However, Massachusetts was to earn a reputation overseas as a place of rigid intolerance… and also of radical thinking, thanks in no part to the spread of Hutchinson’s ideas and fate.  Women also began to face intense scrutiny, as most of the accusations against Anne stemmed from her gender.  Hutchinson’s friend Jane Hawkins was forbidden to practice medicine due to her habit of entering trances and speaking in Latin, while the sharp-tongued Mary Oliver was whipped and forced into the stocks for demanding open membership in the Salem Church.  The most famous of the female companions of Hutchinson who suffered persecution may well be Mary Dyer, the woman who brazenly accompanied Hutchinson as she left the Boston Church following her banishment.  Mary and her husband WIlliam followed Anne to Rhode Island, where they remained for over a decade.  Mary returned to England where she converted to a new religious sect known as the Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers.  As a Quaker missionary, her first stop was her old stomping grounds of Boston…where she was promptly arrested in 1657 for religious heresy (Boston had declared the Quakers to be heretical and thus illegal).  She sat in jail for the better part of a year, but unfortunately, Massachusetts amended their laws in 1658 to include a new penalty for heresy: banishment upon pain of death, and Dyer was ordered out. Dyer was arrested multiple times because she continued to return to Boston in support of other Quaker missionaries who had been arrested.  As Mary was led to the gallows in April 1660, she was asked publicly to recant her alleged heresies, and perhaps taking a cue from her good friend and possible inspiration, she simply replied, “No, man, I am not one to repent.”  Certainly sounds like the Hutchinson touch.  Above all, Hutchinson clung steadfastly to her views and consistently saw fit to question the authorities.  She acted like a true American before the nation even existed: she wasn’t afraid to embrace her individual views and spread them as she saw fit, setting an example for any and all who sought to challenge the status quo (especially women), and for that, this Rhode Island rebel certainly deserves to be remembered. 

Join us next week on History: Beyond the Textbook as we focus on the Pequot War, that conflict that was raging throughout the time Hutchinson was facing formal charges.  This conflict will be examined through the lens of an Indigenous leader who saw fit to ally with the English on multiple occasions: Uncas, the savvy Mohegan Sachem.