An Amazing Woman Part 2

During Anne Hutchinson's time, women were considered inferior with lessor minds and would therefore need to be ruled over by men. For women, freedom to think was the freedom to sin, but Anne couldn't keep quiet for long. Because she was well-educated and very outspoken, she began to invite women to her home for informal bible studies and discussion groups to reflect on sermons and pray. This also became a convenient way for her to express her beliefs and opinions. Anne explored the the Bible much like a minister and offered her own interpretations that sometimes differed widely from the Puritan's teachings.

As her reputation grew, her gathering had spread to both men and women, who would come in great numbers to hear what she had to say. She claimed things such as good conduct was a sign of salvation and was proof that the “Holy Spirit in the hearts of true believers relieved them of responsibility to obey the laws of God.” Anne also condemned the other ministers in New England for misguiding their congregations into the false idea that good deeds would get them into heaven. She voiced her notions about the equality and rights of women and maintained that it was a not a curse to be a woman, but a blessing. With her personal concern for the lack of women's rights, she applied her personal interpretation of the principles of the Bible to support her cause.

The aggressive Anne Hutchinson soon became a religious leader to many, but she had gained many critics that opposed her beliefs, especially because she was a woman. One main enemy of Anne's was John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop saw her as a threat to the authority of the men in power and the idea of a woman voicing her views and opinions made him fear for the integrity and principle ideals of the Puritan's way of life in his colony. He condemned her her gatherings, saying that they were “a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God, nor fitting for your sex.” He also critisized her by saying she had , “a very voluble tongue, more bold than a man.” By 1637, Anne was labeled as a “modern Jezebel,” infecting other women with repulsive ideas regarding their rights and dignity and was brought to civil trail presided over by Winthrop, on the charge of Antinomianism. By this time Anne was 46 and was in the later stages of her fifteenth pregnancy and yet was forced to stand and defend herself in front male questioners for several days. They tried as hard as they could to get Anne to admit her secret blasphemies but she defended herself brilliantly until it was clear she could not escape the court's predetermined judgment. As she was conered, Anne addressed the court with her own judgment by stating, “You have no power over my body, neither can you do me anyharm. I fear none but the great Jehovah, which hath foretold me of these things, and I do verily believe that he will deliver me out of your hands.” This statement brought forth angry sneers as they called her a heretic and an instrument of the devil. One minister even said, “You have stepped out of your place, you have rather been a husband than a wife, a preacher than a hearer, and a magistrate than a subject.”

In August 1637, Anne was condemned by the court and put under house arrest to await her religious trial. In March 1638, her second trail took place and she was convicted and sentenced to be banished from the community. Following her conviction, Anne and her family moved to Rhode Island, along with a good amount of devoted followers. “She is considered one of the founders of that colony, the first to establish complete separation of church and state and freedom of religion in what would become the United States.” After her husband's death in 1642, Anne and her children moved to Long Island, New York, where tragically she and all her children, except for one, died in an Indian raid. Anne Hutchinson was one of the earliest pioneers for women's rights and key figure in the study of the development of religious freedom in England's American colonies and the history of women in ministry.