Page 76 - American Stories, A History of the United States

The Bay magistrates rightly concluded that Anne Hutchinson posed an even graver
threat to the peace of the commonwealth than Williams had. This intelligent woman, 2.1
her husband William, and her children arrived in the New World in 1634. Even con-
temporaries found her religious ideas, which consisted of a highly personal form of
spirituality, usually termed antinomianism, confusing. antinomianism religious belief 2.2
Hutchinson shared her thoughts with other Bostonians, many of them women. Her rejecting traditional moral law as
outspoken views scandalized orthodox leaders of church and state. She suggested that all unnecessary for Christians who
but two ministers in the colony had lost touch with the “Holy Spirit” and were preaching possess saving grace and affirming 2.3
that a person could experience
a doctrine in the Congregational churches that was little better than that of Archbishop divine revelation and salvation
Laud. When authorities demanded she explain her unusual opinions, she suggested that without the assistance of formally
she experienced divine inspiration independently of either the Bible or the clergy. In other trained clergy. 2.4
words, Hutchinson’s teachings could not be tested by Scripture, a position that seemed
dangerously subjective. Indeed, her theology threatened the very foundation of Massa-
chusetts Bay. Without clear, external standards, one person’s truth was as valid as anyone
else’s, and from Winthrop’s perspective, Hutchinson’s teachings invited civil and reli-
gious anarchy. But her challenge to authority was not simply theological. As a woman, her
aggressive speech sparked a deeply misogynist response from the colony’s male leaders.
When this woman described Congregational ministers—some of them the leading
divines of Boston—as unconverted men, the General Court intervened. For two days in Quick Check
1637, the ministers and magistrates of Massachusetts Bay cross-examined Hutchinson. In what ways did Roger Williams and
In this intense theological debate, she more than held her own. She knew as much Anne Hutchinson pose a threat to
about the Bible as did her inquisitors. the Massachusetts Bay Colony?
Hutchinson defied the ministers and magistrates to demonstrate exactly where
she had gone wrong. Just when it appeared Hutchinson had outmaneuvered—indeed,
embarrassed—her opponents, she let down her
guard, declaring that what she knew of God came “by
an immediate revelation. . . . By the voice of his own MAINE
spirit to my soul.” Here was what her accusers had (part of Mass.)
suspected but could not prove. She had confessed in
open court that the Spirit can live without the Moral
Law. This antinomian statement fulfilled the worst
fears of the Bay rulers, and they were relieved to exile
Hutchinson and her followers to Rhode Island. Connecticut R. NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth
(part of Mass.)
Mobility and Division Hudson R.

Massachusetts Bay spawned four new colonies, three Salem
of which survived to the American Revolution (see MASSACHUSETTS Boston
BAY
Map 2.2). New Hampshire became a separate colony
in 1677. Its population grew slowly, and for much Plymouth
of the colonial period, New Hampshire remained Hartford Windsor Providence PLYMOUTH
economically dependent on Massachusetts, its com- NEW Wethersfield
mercial neighbor to the south. HAVEN CONNECTICUT
Far more people were drawn to the fertile NEW Narragansett Bay
lands of the Connecticut River Valley. In 1636, set- New Haven HAVEN RHODE ISLAND
tlers founded the villages of Hartford, Windsor, CONN.
and Wethersfield. No one forced these men and CONN. ATLANTIC
OCEAN
women to leave Massachusetts, and in their new
surroundings, they re-created a society that looked NEW 0 50 100 miles
much like the one they had known in the Bay NETHERLAND 0 50 100 kilometers
Colony. Through his writings, Thomas Hooker,
Connecticut’s most prominent minister, helped map 2.2 nEw EnGLand CoLoniES, 1650 The early settlers quickly carved
all New Englanders define Congregational church up New England. New Haven briefly flourished as a separate colony before being taken
over by Connecticut in 1662. Long Island later became part of New York; Massachusetts
policy. Puritans on both sides of the Atlantic read absorbed Plymouth; and in 1677, New Hampshire became a separate colony.

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