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American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
Anne Hutchinson, a forty-six- year-old midwife who was pregnant with her sixteenth child, stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts General Court, charged with heresy and sedition. In a time when women could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, the charismatic Hutchinson wielded remarkable political power. Her unconventional ideas had attracted a following of prominent citizens eager for social reform. Hutchinson defended herself brilliantly, but the judges, faced with a perceived threat to public order, banished her for behaving in a manner "not comely for [her] sex."
Until now, Hutchinson has been a polarizing figure in American history and letters, attracting either disdain or exaltation. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was haunted by the "sainted" Hutchinson, used her as a model for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Much of the praise for her, however, is muted by a wish to domesticate the heroine: the bronze statue of Hutchinson at the Massachusetts State House depicts a prayerful mother -- eyes raised to heaven, a child at her side -- rather than a woman of power standing alone before humanity and God. Her detractors, starting with her neighbor John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, referred to her as "the instrument of Satan," the new Eve, the "disturber of Israel," a witch, "more bold than a man," and Jezebel -- the ancient Israeli queen who, on account of her tremendous political power, was "the most evil woman" in the Bible.
Written by one of Hutchinson's direct descendants, American Jezebel brings both balance and perspective to Hutchinson's story. It captures this American heroine's life in all its complexity, presenting her not as a religious fanatic, a cardboard feminist, or a raging crank-as some have portrayed her-but as a flesh-and-blood wife, mother, theologian, and political leader.
Opening in a colonial courtroom, American Jezebel moves back in time to Hutchinson's childhood in Elizabethan England, exploring intimate details of her marriage and family life. The book narrates her dramatic expulsion from Massachusetts, after which her judges, still threatened by her challenges, promptly built Harvard College to enforce religious and social orthodoxies -- making her midwife to the nation's first college. In exile, she settled Rhode Island (which later merged with Roger Williams's Providence Plantation), becoming the only woman ever to co-found an American colony.
The seeds of the American struggle for women's and human rights can be found in the story of this one woman's courageous life. American Jezebel illuminates the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech, and showcases an extraordinary woman whose achievements are astonishing by the standards of any era.
Until now, Hutchinson has been a polarizing figure in American history and letters, attracting either disdain or exaltation. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was haunted by the "sainted" Hutchinson, used her as a model for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Much of the praise for her, however, is muted by a wish to domesticate the heroine: the bronze statue of Hutchinson at the Massachusetts State House depicts a prayerful mother -- eyes raised to heaven, a child at her side -- rather than a woman of power standing alone before humanity and God. Her detractors, starting with her neighbor John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, referred to her as "the instrument of Satan," the new Eve, the "disturber of Israel," a witch, "more bold than a man," and Jezebel -- the ancient Israeli queen who, on account of her tremendous political power, was "the most evil woman" in the Bible.
Written by one of Hutchinson's direct descendants, American Jezebel brings both balance and perspective to Hutchinson's story. It captures this American heroine's life in all its complexity, presenting her not as a religious fanatic, a cardboard feminist, or a raging crank-as some have portrayed her-but as a flesh-and-blood wife, mother, theologian, and political leader.
Opening in a colonial courtroom, American Jezebel moves back in time to Hutchinson's childhood in Elizabethan England, exploring intimate details of her marriage and family life. The book narrates her dramatic expulsion from Massachusetts, after which her judges, still threatened by her challenges, promptly built Harvard College to enforce religious and social orthodoxies -- making her midwife to the nation's first college. In exile, she settled Rhode Island (which later merged with Roger Williams's Providence Plantation), becoming the only woman ever to co-found an American colony.
The seeds of the American struggle for women's and human rights can be found in the story of this one woman's courageous life. American Jezebel illuminates the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech, and showcases an extraordinary woman whose achievements are astonishing by the standards of any era.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published March 2, 2004
1228 people are currently reading
3347 people want to read
About the author
Eve LaPlante
15 books90 followersWHO NEEDS A STATUE? is Eve's first book for children. Coauthored by Margy Burns Knight and illustrated by Alix Delinois, it's a picture book about statues of women and people of color.
Eve is also the author of three biographies: MARMEE & LOUISA, about Louisa May Alcott and her mother; AMERICAN JEZEBEL, about the colonial leader Anne Hutchinson; and SALEM WITCH JUDGE, about Samuel Sewall, which won the Massachusetts Book Award. Her first book, SEIZED, is a nonfiction portrait of a common brain disease that can alter personality, illuminating the mind-body problem. She edited MY HEART IS BOUNDLESS, the writings of Abigail May Alcott. Please visit with her online at www.EveLaPlante.com.
Eve is also the author of three biographies: MARMEE & LOUISA, about Louisa May Alcott and her mother; AMERICAN JEZEBEL, about the colonial leader Anne Hutchinson; and SALEM WITCH JUDGE, about Samuel Sewall, which won the Massachusetts Book Award. Her first book, SEIZED, is a nonfiction portrait of a common brain disease that can alter personality, illuminating the mind-body problem. She edited MY HEART IS BOUNDLESS, the writings of Abigail May Alcott. Please visit with her online at www.EveLaPlante.com.
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November 27, 2013
Early in "Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau wonders why government refuses to "cherish its wise minority." He asks, "Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?"
His friend Margaret Fuller might have wryly asked why the martyrs who come to mind are all men. After all, until relatively recently, women were silenced long before their ideas could enjoy even the benefit of being denounced.
How ironic that the first great political crisis of the Puritans' errand in the New World should have erupted over the preaching of a wealthy, well-connected, upstanding mother. Anne Hutchinson arrived in Boston with her husband and 11 children in 1634. She was a student of the colony's most powerful minister and a friend of the richest man in Boston. She and her family moved into a new house across the street from the governor, whose wife she assisted in childbirth. Anne's descendants eventually would include Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George W. Bush. But 3-1/2 years after her arrival in Boston, she was denounced as "an instrument of Satan" and banished.
Eve LaPlante, the author of this fascinating biography and yet another of Hutchinson's illustrious descendants, takes her title from the normally temperate writings of Massachusetts' first governor, John Winthrop. Looking back at Mistress Hutchinson's expulsion as the salvation of Massachusetts, he referred to her as the "American Jezebel," a woman unmatched "since that mentioned in the Revelation."
LaPlante claims, "Unlike most previous commentators, I aim neither to disdain nor to exalt my central character." But considering the facts of the case - and particularly the remarkable transcript of her two trials (one nominally judicial, the other ecclesiastical) - it's impossible to avoid a little exaltation.
Without taking anything away from Hutchinson's originality, LaPlante notes that Anne had been well prepared for her notorious ordeal by her father, who had suffered a similar fate in England. Francis Marbury was a Cambridge-educated clergyman who repeatedly annoyed Anglican church officials by criticizing both the theology and the training of other ministers. Jailed three times before Anne was born, he was under house arrest during her childhood, allowing him to concentrate on teaching his children. Their central textbook at home was the transcript of his own trial.
That unusual training helps explain Hutchinson's dazzling performance during her prosecution almost 60 years later in Newtown (now Cambridge, Mass). Denied any legal advice or counsel and pregnant for the 16th time, this first female defendant in the New World was called to stand before 40 magistrates for two days of relentless questioning and condemnation. She defended herself with alternating wit, humility, and defiance, parrying every Bible verse thrust at her with references of her own.
The charge was multifaceted and shifted as she effectively defended herself, but the root of all the objections concerned increasingly popular meetings she held in her house each week to lecture on the Scriptures.
Women were generally allowed such "pious gossip," but Hutchinson's seminars had begun to attract men, too, and she had grown more vocal about her objections to almost all the ministers in Massachusetts. Ultimately, she claimed that she could discern the final prospects of others' souls, make prophesies, and receive revelations.
LaPlante structures the most engaging half of her biography around the transcript of the first trial. Eager to record Hutchinson's abominations along with their own corrections, the Puritans inadvertently left a record of her outsmarting the assembled experts of the 17th-century New World. The transcript itself has long been an instrument of torture in anthologies of American history, and anyone who endured it as an undergraduate will doubt my claims about how electric it becomes in LaPlante's treatment. But it's not just that she edits it effectively and modernizes the spelling and grammar. As she moves through this biting debate, LaPlante brings it alive by effectively explaining the theological arcana, fleshing out the personalities involved, and filling in the relevant history. (A postscript about her experiences visiting Hutchinson sites in England and America provides a rare and charming glimpse into the pleasures of a historian's detective work.)
She's particularly good at delineating the judges' personalities and motives. Winthrop, for instance, comes off as petty and egotistical, but driven by a genuine concern for the survival of his nascent community. John Cotton, on the other hand, emerges as the master politician, expedient to a fault, playing both sides as long as he can before finally denying his old friend Anne to cleanse his own reputation.
Hutchinson is a classic feminist hero, of course, a woman who dared to speak (and disagree) when women weren't allowed to teach or preach. Many of her judges condemned her along straight gender lines, noting that she "had rather been a husband than a wife," that she was "more bold than a man," that she had behaved in a way "not comely in the sight of God nor fitting for her sex."
While acknowledging the misogyny that fueled this trial, LaPlante also illustrates the way Hutchinson cleverly played the gender card herself, falling back on her status as a women to argue that nothing she said was a matter of public import.
More important, LaPlante is willing to wade into the extraordinarily murky waters of this theological debate. (Even Winthrop acknowledged privately that he was challenged by the arguments involved.) That can make for tough reading, but it allows LaPlante to demonstrate the threat to the existing government posed by Hutchinson's radical Calvinism and her insistence on the validity of her own conscience. In other words, she wasn't persecuted just because she was a feisty woman, as some bland feminist critiques suggest. She was expelled because her spiritual claims threatened a fledgling government that took spiritual claims seriously.
The second half of the story, which details Hutchinson's banishment to Rhode Island is, perhaps inevitably, less dramatic and effective. And some cursory comments about the fate of contemporary women politicians are a reminder of how little LaPlante supplies in the way of tracing the complex influence of Hutchinson's ideas into the present day.
But those weaknesses are minor and take nothing away from the success of her presentation of the trials. What LaPlante has reconstructed here supplies a welcome new podium for a brave Puritan theologian who wouldn't hold her tongue.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0330/p1...
His friend Margaret Fuller might have wryly asked why the martyrs who come to mind are all men. After all, until relatively recently, women were silenced long before their ideas could enjoy even the benefit of being denounced.
How ironic that the first great political crisis of the Puritans' errand in the New World should have erupted over the preaching of a wealthy, well-connected, upstanding mother. Anne Hutchinson arrived in Boston with her husband and 11 children in 1634. She was a student of the colony's most powerful minister and a friend of the richest man in Boston. She and her family moved into a new house across the street from the governor, whose wife she assisted in childbirth. Anne's descendants eventually would include Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George W. Bush. But 3-1/2 years after her arrival in Boston, she was denounced as "an instrument of Satan" and banished.
Eve LaPlante, the author of this fascinating biography and yet another of Hutchinson's illustrious descendants, takes her title from the normally temperate writings of Massachusetts' first governor, John Winthrop. Looking back at Mistress Hutchinson's expulsion as the salvation of Massachusetts, he referred to her as the "American Jezebel," a woman unmatched "since that mentioned in the Revelation."
LaPlante claims, "Unlike most previous commentators, I aim neither to disdain nor to exalt my central character." But considering the facts of the case - and particularly the remarkable transcript of her two trials (one nominally judicial, the other ecclesiastical) - it's impossible to avoid a little exaltation.
Without taking anything away from Hutchinson's originality, LaPlante notes that Anne had been well prepared for her notorious ordeal by her father, who had suffered a similar fate in England. Francis Marbury was a Cambridge-educated clergyman who repeatedly annoyed Anglican church officials by criticizing both the theology and the training of other ministers. Jailed three times before Anne was born, he was under house arrest during her childhood, allowing him to concentrate on teaching his children. Their central textbook at home was the transcript of his own trial.
That unusual training helps explain Hutchinson's dazzling performance during her prosecution almost 60 years later in Newtown (now Cambridge, Mass). Denied any legal advice or counsel and pregnant for the 16th time, this first female defendant in the New World was called to stand before 40 magistrates for two days of relentless questioning and condemnation. She defended herself with alternating wit, humility, and defiance, parrying every Bible verse thrust at her with references of her own.
The charge was multifaceted and shifted as she effectively defended herself, but the root of all the objections concerned increasingly popular meetings she held in her house each week to lecture on the Scriptures.
Women were generally allowed such "pious gossip," but Hutchinson's seminars had begun to attract men, too, and she had grown more vocal about her objections to almost all the ministers in Massachusetts. Ultimately, she claimed that she could discern the final prospects of others' souls, make prophesies, and receive revelations.
LaPlante structures the most engaging half of her biography around the transcript of the first trial. Eager to record Hutchinson's abominations along with their own corrections, the Puritans inadvertently left a record of her outsmarting the assembled experts of the 17th-century New World. The transcript itself has long been an instrument of torture in anthologies of American history, and anyone who endured it as an undergraduate will doubt my claims about how electric it becomes in LaPlante's treatment. But it's not just that she edits it effectively and modernizes the spelling and grammar. As she moves through this biting debate, LaPlante brings it alive by effectively explaining the theological arcana, fleshing out the personalities involved, and filling in the relevant history. (A postscript about her experiences visiting Hutchinson sites in England and America provides a rare and charming glimpse into the pleasures of a historian's detective work.)
She's particularly good at delineating the judges' personalities and motives. Winthrop, for instance, comes off as petty and egotistical, but driven by a genuine concern for the survival of his nascent community. John Cotton, on the other hand, emerges as the master politician, expedient to a fault, playing both sides as long as he can before finally denying his old friend Anne to cleanse his own reputation.
Hutchinson is a classic feminist hero, of course, a woman who dared to speak (and disagree) when women weren't allowed to teach or preach. Many of her judges condemned her along straight gender lines, noting that she "had rather been a husband than a wife," that she was "more bold than a man," that she had behaved in a way "not comely in the sight of God nor fitting for her sex."
While acknowledging the misogyny that fueled this trial, LaPlante also illustrates the way Hutchinson cleverly played the gender card herself, falling back on her status as a women to argue that nothing she said was a matter of public import.
More important, LaPlante is willing to wade into the extraordinarily murky waters of this theological debate. (Even Winthrop acknowledged privately that he was challenged by the arguments involved.) That can make for tough reading, but it allows LaPlante to demonstrate the threat to the existing government posed by Hutchinson's radical Calvinism and her insistence on the validity of her own conscience. In other words, she wasn't persecuted just because she was a feisty woman, as some bland feminist critiques suggest. She was expelled because her spiritual claims threatened a fledgling government that took spiritual claims seriously.
The second half of the story, which details Hutchinson's banishment to Rhode Island is, perhaps inevitably, less dramatic and effective. And some cursory comments about the fate of contemporary women politicians are a reminder of how little LaPlante supplies in the way of tracing the complex influence of Hutchinson's ideas into the present day.
But those weaknesses are minor and take nothing away from the success of her presentation of the trials. What LaPlante has reconstructed here supplies a welcome new podium for a brave Puritan theologian who wouldn't hold her tongue.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0330/p1...
January 2, 2016
I like Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) . She challenged the social order and made a difference. The rigid religious order to which she subscribed, Puritan, allowed only "educated men" to act in the role of spiritual overseer or pastor. She predated John Wesley in advocating that no intermediary or overseer was required and that the individual could obtain God's grace without help from others. And in so doing she challenged the concept of denominations or at least the concept of "the right" denomination.
"American Jezebel" is a term coined by John Winthrop, many-time governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and head judge at the banishment trial of Anne Hutchinson. The term is pejorative. "Halley's Bible Handbook" describes Jezebel, the wife of Ahab and the most wicked king of Israel, as imperious, unscrupulous, vindictive, devilish, determined, and demon incarnate (see 1st Kings 16:29-22:40).
Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from Massachusetts, is an inspiration. She was a woman of extraordinary ability as well as an "intersecting point" during the development of America. She had to be tough. Life and survival in New England were not easy. Further, she gave birth to 15 children or one birth every 18 months. Had she not run afoul of the rigid male-only Puritan pastorate, we would not know much, if anything, about her since women in her time were placed in subservient roles that made them invisible to history. Women of her time were typically uneducated, could not write their own name, were not allowed to perform in the role of pastor, and were expected to defer to their husbands in all matters. In contrast, Anne was educated, knowledgeable, outspoken, firm in her beliefs, and competent in a couple of ancient languages. She was one of those people who could challenge anyone at being "the smartest person in the room". Terms that would apply to her are: principled, capable, competent, devout, formidable, courageous, confident, midwife, wife, mother, durable and chutzpah. Her husband, of whom we know not much, was a good provider and had to be very supportive and the right one for her.
The transcripts from the banishment trial, which form the basis for the book, are wonderful. Here is a lone pregnant woman, forced to stand throughout, holding her own against an ecclesiastical court of male judges. The trial was no small thing, they could have hanged her, as they did others, convicted her of witchcraft and so forth. The book reports that this trial was the motivation for the founding of Harvard University as a means to insure that the male-only learned pastorate were all taught to voice the same message. John Harvard is presented as a non-entity in that he provided the funds to build the university and then, like something Tolstoy might have observed, died.
Upon her banishment from Massachusetts,she, together with family and followers, walked, during the winter, to Rhode Island where they founded Portsmouth, RI (then the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations). Later, upon learning that Massachusetts might take over Rhode Island, she, a few years following the death of her husband, moved to New Amsterdam (around what is now Pelham, NY). She, along with most of the members of her household, were murdered during a retaliatory raid by Indians which in turn was a response to a raid by the Dutch wherein 80 men, women and children of the marauding tribe were massacred. The only survivor was a daughter who was subsequently re-united a few years later, reluctantly the author reports, with her Puritan brethren. Banishment seems to have propagated a number of colonies including New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
"American Jezebel" is a term coined by John Winthrop, many-time governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and head judge at the banishment trial of Anne Hutchinson. The term is pejorative. "Halley's Bible Handbook" describes Jezebel, the wife of Ahab and the most wicked king of Israel, as imperious, unscrupulous, vindictive, devilish, determined, and demon incarnate (see 1st Kings 16:29-22:40).
Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from Massachusetts, is an inspiration. She was a woman of extraordinary ability as well as an "intersecting point" during the development of America. She had to be tough. Life and survival in New England were not easy. Further, she gave birth to 15 children or one birth every 18 months. Had she not run afoul of the rigid male-only Puritan pastorate, we would not know much, if anything, about her since women in her time were placed in subservient roles that made them invisible to history. Women of her time were typically uneducated, could not write their own name, were not allowed to perform in the role of pastor, and were expected to defer to their husbands in all matters. In contrast, Anne was educated, knowledgeable, outspoken, firm in her beliefs, and competent in a couple of ancient languages. She was one of those people who could challenge anyone at being "the smartest person in the room". Terms that would apply to her are: principled, capable, competent, devout, formidable, courageous, confident, midwife, wife, mother, durable and chutzpah. Her husband, of whom we know not much, was a good provider and had to be very supportive and the right one for her.
The transcripts from the banishment trial, which form the basis for the book, are wonderful. Here is a lone pregnant woman, forced to stand throughout, holding her own against an ecclesiastical court of male judges. The trial was no small thing, they could have hanged her, as they did others, convicted her of witchcraft and so forth. The book reports that this trial was the motivation for the founding of Harvard University as a means to insure that the male-only learned pastorate were all taught to voice the same message. John Harvard is presented as a non-entity in that he provided the funds to build the university and then, like something Tolstoy might have observed, died.
Upon her banishment from Massachusetts,she, together with family and followers, walked, during the winter, to Rhode Island where they founded Portsmouth, RI (then the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations). Later, upon learning that Massachusetts might take over Rhode Island, she, a few years following the death of her husband, moved to New Amsterdam (around what is now Pelham, NY). She, along with most of the members of her household, were murdered during a retaliatory raid by Indians which in turn was a response to a raid by the Dutch wherein 80 men, women and children of the marauding tribe were massacred. The only survivor was a daughter who was subsequently re-united a few years later, reluctantly the author reports, with her Puritan brethren. Banishment seems to have propagated a number of colonies including New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
December 29, 2008
dude, this book is so sweet. It has given me a solid sense of the history of the Europeans who settled what is now Boston. It's fun to read about what happened in the place you currently live. As someone employed peripherally by Harvard, it's also funny to think about what LaPlante says near the beginning of the book -- that Harvard college was essentially founded to protect the MENZ Important Learnings from Evil Womenz Witches like Anne Hutchinson.
This book stirs pride in my little heart for all the bold women all over the globe who have said and done things despite all the things they had to fight against.
Also, I saw absolutely no appeal to Puritan theology before this book. In high school, it totally baffled me what there was to be drawn to in a philosophy that says people are either saved or damned before birth and nothing you do in this life can change that. Now I see that in the context of an authoritarian church, making the connection to God more personal is very liberating. And awesome. And this book rules!
This book stirs pride in my little heart for all the bold women all over the globe who have said and done things despite all the things they had to fight against.
Also, I saw absolutely no appeal to Puritan theology before this book. In high school, it totally baffled me what there was to be drawn to in a philosophy that says people are either saved or damned before birth and nothing you do in this life can change that. Now I see that in the context of an authoritarian church, making the connection to God more personal is very liberating. And awesome. And this book rules!
April 27, 2008
I understand that this was a difficult read; there were lots of details and it was hard to put the whole picture together. Many rabbit trails. However, I must say that I'm very glad to have read this book and am very happy to know about Anne Hutchinson's life. I'm fairly amazed all that she accomplished and really surprised that I never knew about her, before. She is not a feminist that waves a NOW sign and burns her bra, but she is an assertive, intelligent person who happens to be a woman. If she waves any flag, it is that of a deeply devoted Christian. Praise God for freedom of religion and equality of the sexes and thank you Anne for helping pave the way.
April 6, 2011
Eve Laplante’s American Jezebel is an engaging exposition of one of America’s most notable forgotten women, Anne Hutchinson. Creating vivid scenes of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, the Dutch occupied New Amsterdam (later to become New York), and through historical flashbacks, Laplante manages to draw the reader into the, at times, laborious and uneven narrative structure of the Hutchinson trial. It quickly becomes evident that the real issue for then Governor John Winthrop is not the doctrine of a female heretic, but power. Winthrop, desiring a community built on 17th Century Puritan gender role order, saw Hutchinson as a threat to maintaining community stability. From the very beginning, Winthrop’s goal was, not to dialogue with Hutchinson over doctrine, but to expel her from Boston.
Although falsely labeled an antinomian, Hutchinson never displayed any immoral behavior in the community. Her sincere belief focused around an individual relationship with Christ and the inspiration of the indwelling Holy Spirit, doctrines she learned from her father Francis Marbury and her pastor and mentor, John Cotton, who, during the trial, threw his pupil under the bus. The charges were dubious and what the trial transcripts reveal is the cultural attitude toward an extremely bold and bright female the leading male authorities wanted suppressed. However, Anne did contribute to the court’s contempt for her with an arrogant and judgmental diatribe at the end of her first hearing. Humility was not one of Hutchinson’s virtues and the absence of it cost her and her family through community expulsion.
While her contribution to women’s rights—equality and intellectual freedom—were admirable her Christian orthodoxy was questionable, but the necessity to dialogue over these issues was denied her and that remains the sad legacy of Governor Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Although falsely labeled an antinomian, Hutchinson never displayed any immoral behavior in the community. Her sincere belief focused around an individual relationship with Christ and the inspiration of the indwelling Holy Spirit, doctrines she learned from her father Francis Marbury and her pastor and mentor, John Cotton, who, during the trial, threw his pupil under the bus. The charges were dubious and what the trial transcripts reveal is the cultural attitude toward an extremely bold and bright female the leading male authorities wanted suppressed. However, Anne did contribute to the court’s contempt for her with an arrogant and judgmental diatribe at the end of her first hearing. Humility was not one of Hutchinson’s virtues and the absence of it cost her and her family through community expulsion.
While her contribution to women’s rights—equality and intellectual freedom—were admirable her Christian orthodoxy was questionable, but the necessity to dialogue over these issues was denied her and that remains the sad legacy of Governor Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
January 6, 2010
This book was very slow going for me, but I'm still glad I read it. The author, a descendant of Anne Hutchinson, describes the trial of Anne Hutchinson that was conducted in early 17th c. Boston on the charges basically of "preaching" but probably more accurately, of speaking critically about other local preachers. The author reviews written records of the trial, as well as personal correspondence/memoirs of many of the key players in order to write her history, and fills in the edges with other information about the Boston-area settlements at the time. I enjoyed a lot of the general historical information, and information about Anne and her family and how they lived--where I found it slow-going was to follow the theological arguments that were being made, in particular when actual language was quoted. LaPlante did try to "translate" some of this language into modern terms, and in many cases explained the origin of some of the beliefs of the time, but it was still sometimes hard to follow. This is probably not because of any fault on her part, but more that I don't make much of an effort when I don't find it particularly interesting....
What I DID find interesting was the irony inherent in a bunch of people leaving England because of religious persecution only to enforce the same type of religious persecution in the name of slightly different beliefs! I much appreciated learning about the group of Boston colonists that left and established a new colony with greater religious freedom--that later became Rhode Island.
All in all, worth reading. Covers a part of American history I really didn't know much about. (The author points out that when we think of colonial America, we are often thinking only of the 1700s up to the Revolution...but a lot of impt things happened in the 1600s too!)
What I DID find interesting was the irony inherent in a bunch of people leaving England because of religious persecution only to enforce the same type of religious persecution in the name of slightly different beliefs! I much appreciated learning about the group of Boston colonists that left and established a new colony with greater religious freedom--that later became Rhode Island.
All in all, worth reading. Covers a part of American history I really didn't know much about. (The author points out that when we think of colonial America, we are often thinking only of the 1700s up to the Revolution...but a lot of impt things happened in the 1600s too!)
February 8, 2011
I love my book club dearly and love the challenges it offers. Let's face it--I never would have chosen this book for myself (even though I agreed it sounded interesting) and I certainly would NEVER, EVER have finished it without the pressure of the club. That said--this was the worst book I read in 2010. And yes, I did start this in 2010. Like in October. And I didn't finish it until the last day of January 2011 (because I told myself this could NOT drag into February).
The topic is interesting. I learned A LOT. It's already contributed to two Jeopardy! answers (er, one I answered incorrectly, though). Anne Hutchinson is crazy amazing--girl power, religious freedoms, and all that. And I admire Eve LePlante for gathering all of the information in this book, but ooooh, girlfriend cannot write a book. She can maybe write a big, long magazine article. Writing a book, though? Sometimes too detailed, often repetitive, and oh gracious, I don't need exact quotes from Anne's trials. Pages and pages of quotes with Eve breaking in to translate for us. I wanted to punch things, it exasperated me so much.
Two interesting things from the book--I never really thought about what life was like before novels. What was it like, people? The Bible was the center of EVERYTHING. They read it for fun, for their studies, for their souls, for quoting at random times. Not that the Bible isn't awesome (I mean, I guess. I haven't ever read it.). But imagining a world where your entire life's entertainment revolves around the Bible? That's not the life I lead, is all I'm going to say about that. Also, whoa, the end of Anne's life was crazy. Terrible! And crazy. I sped through that part. I won't go into details but it involves... violent deaths and a child hiding in a giant rock. Probably better to look for it on Wikipedia or something rather than read this book, though. :(
The topic is interesting. I learned A LOT. It's already contributed to two Jeopardy! answers (er, one I answered incorrectly, though). Anne Hutchinson is crazy amazing--girl power, religious freedoms, and all that. And I admire Eve LePlante for gathering all of the information in this book, but ooooh, girlfriend cannot write a book. She can maybe write a big, long magazine article. Writing a book, though? Sometimes too detailed, often repetitive, and oh gracious, I don't need exact quotes from Anne's trials. Pages and pages of quotes with Eve breaking in to translate for us. I wanted to punch things, it exasperated me so much.
Two interesting things from the book--I never really thought about what life was like before novels. What was it like, people? The Bible was the center of EVERYTHING. They read it for fun, for their studies, for their souls, for quoting at random times. Not that the Bible isn't awesome (I mean, I guess. I haven't ever read it.). But imagining a world where your entire life's entertainment revolves around the Bible? That's not the life I lead, is all I'm going to say about that. Also, whoa, the end of Anne's life was crazy. Terrible! And crazy. I sped through that part. I won't go into details but it involves... violent deaths and a child hiding in a giant rock. Probably better to look for it on Wikipedia or something rather than read this book, though. :(
May 12, 2012
Fantastic exploration of the political and religious issues of Anne Hutchinson and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. LaPlante delves into the religious conflict between the emerging Protestants and the Anglican Church in England and then continues the story in America, with the conflict between the different beliefs and values of the men in power. Anne Hutchinson's story is a remarkable story about faith in oneself and living by your conviction. It's also a fantastic exploration of the not-so-nice realities of living in Massachusetts in the 1640's.
May 17, 2020
Before there were the New England Witch Trials, there was Anne Hutchinson's appearance before the magistrates of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.
Anne held much knowledge and power that they men wanted for themselves. As herbalist, midwife, daughter of clergyman father, follower of John Cotton, reader and assessor of the Bible, spiritual teacher of women and of men, Anne had become dangerous to those who wanted to retain power.
In this biography written by a descendant of Anne Hutchinson, find out how Anne maintained her dignity and held on to her truth.
_________
Read in honor of the centennial of Women's Suffrage in US. In The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, Elaine F. Weiss points put that women's professional work experience made possible their work of getting the vote. Weiss notes women preachers. Anne Hutchinson was a spiritual teacher who preached to women and to men.
Anne held much knowledge and power that they men wanted for themselves. As herbalist, midwife, daughter of clergyman father, follower of John Cotton, reader and assessor of the Bible, spiritual teacher of women and of men, Anne had become dangerous to those who wanted to retain power.
In this biography written by a descendant of Anne Hutchinson, find out how Anne maintained her dignity and held on to her truth.
_________
Read in honor of the centennial of Women's Suffrage in US. In The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, Elaine F. Weiss points put that women's professional work experience made possible their work of getting the vote. Weiss notes women preachers. Anne Hutchinson was a spiritual teacher who preached to women and to men.
September 26, 2018
Life in Puritan New England would not be a comfortable place for those of us who are used to a modern religious sensibility. They would brook no controversy, especially from a woman. LaPlante addresses the trial of Hutchinson with all of the theological arguments, some will be familiar to evangelicals today, but other probably not. But in discussing the different players and their viewpoints, she poses the question, was the real problem the fact that Anne was a woman? That she became a "public woman", daring to have her own opinions, and to share them, even if only with other women, was much of the problem.
LaPlante also writes nice descriptions of Old and New England, fleshing out the story of how and why the Puritans journeyed to the new world, and what became of them. Recommended if you have an interest in American religion or women's history.
LaPlante also writes nice descriptions of Old and New England, fleshing out the story of how and why the Puritans journeyed to the new world, and what became of them. Recommended if you have an interest in American religion or women's history.
January 29, 2020
My main take-away is that the Puritans had their woolen knickers in an even tighter twist than I realized. Anne Hutchinson was a theologian, mystic, and teacher, and pretty dang uppity to boot, so you can see why the Men In Power were terrified of such a woman questioning them, needed her removed, and invented a crime (believing and teaching wrongly) to banish her.
The whole thing is eerily Handmaid's Tale-ish.
LaPlante uses transcripts of Hutchinson's actual trial, translating Puritan-speak for us modern readers and explaining scriptural references and theological hairsplitting. The trial is elegantly put into context as Hutchinson's biography is spun for the reader.
I have a soft spot for womenfolk arguing theology with my-beliefs-are-the-only-real-ones men, whose beliefs conveniently ensure they continue to hold all the power, so this book resonated for me. There's lots to learn here for everyone, but perhaps the most immediately important is the inherent doom in attempting to create a theocratic society where church and state function as one. Recommended.
The whole thing is eerily Handmaid's Tale-ish.
LaPlante uses transcripts of Hutchinson's actual trial, translating Puritan-speak for us modern readers and explaining scriptural references and theological hairsplitting. The trial is elegantly put into context as Hutchinson's biography is spun for the reader.
I have a soft spot for womenfolk arguing theology with my-beliefs-are-the-only-real-ones men, whose beliefs conveniently ensure they continue to hold all the power, so this book resonated for me. There's lots to learn here for everyone, but perhaps the most immediately important is the inherent doom in attempting to create a theocratic society where church and state function as one. Recommended.
February 4, 2010
I enjoyed learning about Hutchinson, but her story the book was weighed down by an overabundance of minor details about the people surrounding her making it a difficult read in some spots. While I appreciate the extent of the research that went into the book and understand that it's important to understand the context of the story and lives of those involved I found it distracting. Overall, though, I'm glad to have a better understanding of Hutchinson's role in American History. Also, glad I wasn't a Puritan.
November 13, 2008
Anne Hutchinson was an interesting character but I found this book to be a bit on the slow side and tough to get through. I kept putting it down and going off and doing other things.
there's another biography about her out there somewhere, I'll have to find it and give it a read.
there's another biography about her out there somewhere, I'll have to find it and give it a read.
June 1, 2021
Not really what I expected, but I think that's more my fault than anyone else's. It just was a lot slower than I anticipated and filled with a lot more religion that expected, which looking back makes sense but still. It was a bit like the author only had enough for 180 pages and stretched out the book with less interesting padding. Decent if you're willing to skim.
November 4, 2017
A meticulously researched and detailed account of Anne Hutchinson of Puritan fame, or infamy, really. Included are fascinating portraits of the people involved in her trial and their religious background and beliefs. The development of these religious beliefs is enlightening, but tedious in the point by point explanation for my rather pagan tastes.
Recommended for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the Puritan experience from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Ann is truly a clearly intelligent woman, and defiant in her time when women had no voice.
Recommended for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the Puritan experience from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Ann is truly a clearly intelligent woman, and defiant in her time when women had no voice.
September 4, 2011
I was really interested in reading something about Anne Hutchinson and Anne Bradstreet after reading Geraldine Brooks' excellent new book "Caleb's Crossing". This book, "American Jezebel", not only provided background on Hutchinson (and a little for Bradstreet), but also helped deepen my understanding of why America is so schizophenic about religion and the role of women in society. While the book was a bit of a slog at times, Anne Hutchinson's story is unbelieveable. Born in England and sailing for Boston to join the Puritan colony there, she was part of community of religious zealots that eventually turned on her--they simply couldn't stand having a woman hold (slightly) differing beliefs and then acting like a man and preaching/teaching those beliefs to others. As a result, she was convicted in a civil trial of heresy. Then, after keeping her under house arrest at the home of a Puritan minister for four months and attempting to brainwash her into thinking like everyone else (all while suffering through a difficult pregnancy), the Puritan leaders eventually excommunicated and banished her for continuing to think as she liked. It goes without saying that most of the men in this story (especially Rev. John Cotton and John Winthrop) don't come off looking so good here. Anne's husband and some of male children (and sons-in-law) were, however, supportive. LaPlante also follows up the biography with an interesting final chapter (more of an epilogue) that details where you can go to experience Anne Hutchinson's world in contemporary America and England.
June 5, 2009
This is an interesting examination of the trial of Anne Hutchinson by the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy in holding meetings in her home to share her interpretations of what the preachers had taught and what the Bible said.
In the process of this examination, the author gives brief, and in some cases, not-so-brief, descriptions of the lives and histories of not only Anne and her family members, but also many of the other people in New England at that time--those who were on her side and those who were against her.
She was convicted and banished, but her enemies didn't win. Because of her, separation of church and state became important in other parts of the New World, and in reaction to her, Harvard University was established--just two things that made life better for those who came after her.
This book is very well researched and well written, if somewhat dry and easy to put down. It was also easy to pick up again and finish, and I would recommend it to anyone who would like to know more about the lives and thought processes of some of the early New England colonizers.
In the process of this examination, the author gives brief, and in some cases, not-so-brief, descriptions of the lives and histories of not only Anne and her family members, but also many of the other people in New England at that time--those who were on her side and those who were against her.
She was convicted and banished, but her enemies didn't win. Because of her, separation of church and state became important in other parts of the New World, and in reaction to her, Harvard University was established--just two things that made life better for those who came after her.
This book is very well researched and well written, if somewhat dry and easy to put down. It was also easy to pick up again and finish, and I would recommend it to anyone who would like to know more about the lives and thought processes of some of the early New England colonizers.
January 4, 2013
I was prompted to read this book when my 5th grade daughter chose Anne Hutchinson for a research project, and I had never even heard of her. Hutchinson was a 17th century Massachusetts colonist who was banished and excommunicated ostensibly for her unorthodox beliefs but mainly because her intellect and certitude threatened the Puritan power structure. And the men in charge did not like being schooled by a woman. LaPlante's book argues that she is our "founding mother," one of the progenitors of freedom of religion and a proto-feminist. I don't disagree with her argument, and while this book is very well-researched and thorough, I found it to be a slog at times, requiring my full concentration. I only managed to finish it by deciding to skim rather than read closely.
With that said, I am glad to have learned much about Hutchinson, Reformation theology, and the religious climate and practices in the early colonial America, and even more appreciate the freedoms of conscience and religion that I enjoy that Anne and her contemporaries did not.
With that said, I am glad to have learned much about Hutchinson, Reformation theology, and the religious climate and practices in the early colonial America, and even more appreciate the freedoms of conscience and religion that I enjoy that Anne and her contemporaries did not.
April 20, 2020
For those unfamiliar with Anne Hutchinson, it is difficult to concisely introduce this fascinating, paradoxical woman. Born in Lincolnshire, not far from the birthplace of most of the Mayflower colonists, Anne Marbury Hutchinson emigrated to Boston in 1634 a Puritan woman of keen mind and solid spiritual convictions. In a few short years, she would be accused, put through a brutal public trial, imprisoned, condemned as a heretic, excommunicated, and even long remembered as a witch in the service of Satan.
In the fiercely patriarchal society of Puritan New England women had no voice in church or anywhere else really, but women were allowed to meet after church to discuss the sermon and its relevant scriptures. Perhaps due to her keen insights and vast knowledge of scripture, her post-church Bible studies were extremely well attended and eventually grew to be of greater social and spiritual importance than the Sunday service. Men began to attend - even a governor of Massachusetts. Threatened by her popularity and troubled by aspects of her theology, the ministers and government of Boston conspired to make an end of her. A person of tremendous conviction, she did not help her case by refusing to feign respect for these self-righteous and incompetent authorities.
The Puritans were nothing if not thorough so detailed transcripts of her trial exist giving this woman an immortal voice from a time when women were not allowed one. At every point, Anne seems to outwit her accusers, run rhetorical circles around them, and elucidate her understanding of scripture in ways that made them seem dumb.
Giving damning testimony at this trial were the Reverend John Cotton (Boston is named after his hometown in England in his honor) and Reverend Richard Mather. Their grandson would be the famous Cotton Mather.
Convicted, she and her family were exiled from Boston. They fled with a large group of supporters to Rhode Island. Years later, the Bostonians conspired to absorb Rhode Island, so Anne fled again, this time outside the English colonies to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. It was in New Amsterdam, in what is today known as Brooklyn's Pelham Park, that Anne and her family were scalped and butchered by Indians. (The Indians thought they were the hated Dutch and were horrified to discover they had just killed some English. One of Anne's daughter's survived, hiding behind Split Rock, a sight that can still be seen today, and was adopted and raised by the tribe.)
I could go on and on. I DEVOURED this book and plan on reading it again.
A few takeaways:
*Governor Winthrop and the ministers of Boston convicted her on something like 39 points of spiritual error, but it is worth pointing out that in almost every perspective, Anne was spiritually in the right. She maintained that God spoke to her (how many evangelicals today will say "God spoke to me..." or "God put this on my heart...") Furthermore, she maintained that righteousness and sanctification were free gifts of God and could not be earned through good works. This is just plain in scripture. Even in her time, Calvin and Luther and Presbyterian John Knox would have been completely on her side. The Puritans of Boston were beholden to an odd heresy in which Grace also required a requisite amount of works to be earned. Anne was in the right.
*In the mid 1630's the population of New England had swollen to 5,000. It drives me crazy how small the world was back then. Anne was friends with Anne Bradstreet (famous poet), the midwife to Mary Dyer (another spiritual martyr and one so famous that Winona Ryder plays her in the Drunk History episode about her), was a cousin of John Dryden (another super famous English poet). Her husband William Hutchinson had been best friends and wrestling buddies with Oliver Cromwell who would later kill King Charles and take over England. Their great-great-grandson would be Thomas Hutchinson, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts who would be the target of ridicule by Ben Franklin and the Sons of Liberty. Her sixth-great-grandson was FDR and her tenth great-grandson was Dubya himself - George W. Bush.
This is one of the most fascinating histories I've ever read and I'll read it again. There is so so much more.
On a personal note, some years ago I discovered that one of my early ancestors (my 15th? great-grandfather) was a man named John Albro who came to the colonies as an indentured servant. He was indentured to a Reverend William Wheelwright, a minister who supported Anne Hutchinson, and, as a result, was exiled from Boston. Like Anne, Wheelwright (and my grandad Albro) fled to Rhode Island and became the first English speaking colonists of that place - a colony that would be distinguished by its religious tolerance. Albro's kept living there until the American Revolution. This is one weird way I'm connected to Anne Hutchinson.
Over Thanksgiving 2019, my family traveled to Boston on a history-thirsty family vacation. After a long morning of tramping the Freedom Trail of historic downtown Boston we stopped for some lunch at a Chipotle in an ancient brick building. My phone app notified me that we were chowing down in the historic Corner Bookstore building, a building that had once been the original publishing house of The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. Come to find out, this brick building was built by the son of Anne Hutchinson and was upon the very same site where she once lived. Chipotle!!!
In the fiercely patriarchal society of Puritan New England women had no voice in church or anywhere else really, but women were allowed to meet after church to discuss the sermon and its relevant scriptures. Perhaps due to her keen insights and vast knowledge of scripture, her post-church Bible studies were extremely well attended and eventually grew to be of greater social and spiritual importance than the Sunday service. Men began to attend - even a governor of Massachusetts. Threatened by her popularity and troubled by aspects of her theology, the ministers and government of Boston conspired to make an end of her. A person of tremendous conviction, she did not help her case by refusing to feign respect for these self-righteous and incompetent authorities.
The Puritans were nothing if not thorough so detailed transcripts of her trial exist giving this woman an immortal voice from a time when women were not allowed one. At every point, Anne seems to outwit her accusers, run rhetorical circles around them, and elucidate her understanding of scripture in ways that made them seem dumb.
Giving damning testimony at this trial were the Reverend John Cotton (Boston is named after his hometown in England in his honor) and Reverend Richard Mather. Their grandson would be the famous Cotton Mather.
Convicted, she and her family were exiled from Boston. They fled with a large group of supporters to Rhode Island. Years later, the Bostonians conspired to absorb Rhode Island, so Anne fled again, this time outside the English colonies to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. It was in New Amsterdam, in what is today known as Brooklyn's Pelham Park, that Anne and her family were scalped and butchered by Indians. (The Indians thought they were the hated Dutch and were horrified to discover they had just killed some English. One of Anne's daughter's survived, hiding behind Split Rock, a sight that can still be seen today, and was adopted and raised by the tribe.)
I could go on and on. I DEVOURED this book and plan on reading it again.
A few takeaways:
*Governor Winthrop and the ministers of Boston convicted her on something like 39 points of spiritual error, but it is worth pointing out that in almost every perspective, Anne was spiritually in the right. She maintained that God spoke to her (how many evangelicals today will say "God spoke to me..." or "God put this on my heart...") Furthermore, she maintained that righteousness and sanctification were free gifts of God and could not be earned through good works. This is just plain in scripture. Even in her time, Calvin and Luther and Presbyterian John Knox would have been completely on her side. The Puritans of Boston were beholden to an odd heresy in which Grace also required a requisite amount of works to be earned. Anne was in the right.
*In the mid 1630's the population of New England had swollen to 5,000. It drives me crazy how small the world was back then. Anne was friends with Anne Bradstreet (famous poet), the midwife to Mary Dyer (another spiritual martyr and one so famous that Winona Ryder plays her in the Drunk History episode about her), was a cousin of John Dryden (another super famous English poet). Her husband William Hutchinson had been best friends and wrestling buddies with Oliver Cromwell who would later kill King Charles and take over England. Their great-great-grandson would be Thomas Hutchinson, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts who would be the target of ridicule by Ben Franklin and the Sons of Liberty. Her sixth-great-grandson was FDR and her tenth great-grandson was Dubya himself - George W. Bush.
This is one of the most fascinating histories I've ever read and I'll read it again. There is so so much more.
On a personal note, some years ago I discovered that one of my early ancestors (my 15th? great-grandfather) was a man named John Albro who came to the colonies as an indentured servant. He was indentured to a Reverend William Wheelwright, a minister who supported Anne Hutchinson, and, as a result, was exiled from Boston. Like Anne, Wheelwright (and my grandad Albro) fled to Rhode Island and became the first English speaking colonists of that place - a colony that would be distinguished by its religious tolerance. Albro's kept living there until the American Revolution. This is one weird way I'm connected to Anne Hutchinson.
Over Thanksgiving 2019, my family traveled to Boston on a history-thirsty family vacation. After a long morning of tramping the Freedom Trail of historic downtown Boston we stopped for some lunch at a Chipotle in an ancient brick building. My phone app notified me that we were chowing down in the historic Corner Bookstore building, a building that had once been the original publishing house of The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. Come to find out, this brick building was built by the son of Anne Hutchinson and was upon the very same site where she once lived. Chipotle!!!
April 16, 2018
If you want a sermon or like trial details, this book is for you. Otherwise, don't bother....50% of way through, I decided I can't finish such a boring waste of time. I wanted to know about Anne Hutchinson, but I learned way more about Massachusetts, John Winthrop and the mess the Puritans had. Guess I'll go on Wikipedia to learn about Anne.
December 15, 2015
I had some trouble following some aspects, like theological arguments, but otherwise this was a fascinating social history of Puritan life in England and New England. ETA: courtroom drama as the backdrop; fantastic way to organize this story.
May 31, 2012
I just could not finish the book. I wanted to know more about Anne's life, but I did not find the writing to my taste.
December 2, 2015
Too much detail about every single peripheral character...the detailed religious discussions were just not interesting.
K
K
February 8, 2017
Very thorough research. I enjoyed the bits and pieces which are not normally included (plague rock, historical marker, etc.) in a bio. I'm surprised Anne is not more revered than she is.
April 19, 2020
Where do I begin? First I wanted to love this book. The idea that in the 17th century, a time when women ceased to exist as a citizen as soon as they married, that there was a woman like Anne Hutchinson who provided such leadership for religious freedom was inspiring. Her famous trial which highlighted all she stood for became the foundation of our Constitution giving our citizens that freedom. I’m staggered by what life was like in the time of Shakespeare in colonial America. Women having 16 children raising their own babies and grand babies at the same time. Fighting off the Indians. Children dying was commonplace. Living apart and unable to communicate with your families also commonplace. Diseases were prevalent. I’m grateful for the 21st century. It was fascinating to discover that the Bush family and Dukakis family were descendants.
The hard part, is the language spoken during the 17th century was painfully difficult to follow. And the author’s over abundance off quotes during the trials was extremely tedious. I almost gave up on the book. I’m glad I didn’t because the summary at the end was so worth it.
I was going to recommend this as my book club selection. Now I’ll wait to hear from the other members.
Maybe 3.5 stars.
The hard part, is the language spoken during the 17th century was painfully difficult to follow. And the author’s over abundance off quotes during the trials was extremely tedious. I almost gave up on the book. I’m glad I didn’t because the summary at the end was so worth it.
I was going to recommend this as my book club selection. Now I’ll wait to hear from the other members.
Maybe 3.5 stars.
October 14, 2025
LaPlante describes the volatile mixture of theology, politics, misogyny and pride that led to the trial and eventual banishment of Anne Hutchinson. LaPlante also details the relationship of Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, the only woman who was executed by the Puritans for being a Quaker. This was a new and fascinating connection for me. LaPlante's depiction of John Winthrop is a useful counter narrative to the textbook depictions of the famed Massachusetts governor. For example, Winthrop was especially cruel in publicizing for his own benefit the tragic miscarriages of both Hutchinson and Dyer.
Overall, an excellent account of this pivotal moment in American colonial history but for those unfamiliar with Reformed theology, the courtroom testimonies may be a bit abstruse.
Overall, an excellent account of this pivotal moment in American colonial history but for those unfamiliar with Reformed theology, the courtroom testimonies may be a bit abstruse.
August 6, 2021
Reverend Roger Williams in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 expressed the concept of freedom of conscience, stating "Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils." For his views, he was expelled and went on to found a colony in Rhode Island.
Two years later, Anne Hutchinson, 46 and pregnant with her 13th child, stood trial in Boston, first in a civil court, then in a church court, for sharing her own understanding of the Bible and critique of the local Puritan church. She was allowed no legal assistance and faced unspecified charges, yet her quick mind and confidence in her ability to express her spiritual beliefs allowed her some victories as the first female defendant in the New World.
I can recommend "American Jezebel," though as LaPlante recounts Hutchinson's two trials based on written transcripts, some of the theological arguments in her case are a little technical and inescapably tedious to wade through in the middle of the book.
Still, this book gave me a great historical perspective on the rise of Pilgrims (Separatists) and Puritans in England and their struggles with the Church of England and the Crown. I learned more about why both groups came to America in waves and settled in Massachusetts. "Following a decade, the 1630s, in which four thousand English families-- roughly fifteen thousand individuals-- left for the New World in three hundred separate voyages, Puritan emigration largely ceased."
Anne's early family life in England and her father's influence on her explains a lot about her self-confidence and religious leanings. And makes a real hero out of her husband, a prosperous businessman who can support their large family as well as a stalwart support for Anne's valiant stand against a hostile community.
The names of giant figures of the Puritan Period--John Winthrop, John Cotton, John Harvard, Sir Henry Vane are brought to life, along with a number of minor figures who played their part in this drama. Fortunately, Anne had devoted sons and sons-in-law who could stand up for her as well as several male "students" devoted to her understanding and teachings. Still, in the end, she was a disruptive element in the tight-knit, but fragile community and they pursued her case until they could reach a definitive result-- banishment.
One of the most surprising points of "American Jezebel" was LaPlante's claim that Anne was "the true midwife of Harvard University." "As a result of her heresy," the Reverend Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard, wrote in Harvard Magazine in 2992, "The colony determined to provide for the education of a new generation of ministers and theologians who would secure England's civil and theological peace against future seditious Mrs. Hutchinsons 'when our present ministers shall be in the dust,' as the inscription on the [college's] Johnson Gate puts it. At Harvard we may seek her memorial in vain, but without her it is difficult to do justice to the motivating impulse of our foundation."
Anne and her husband and much of her family relocated with her to Rhode Island. Her husband, Will, died at age 55 though there is no specific documentation of the date and cause of his death. Anne went into mourning and the Massachusetts ministers once again tried to get her to recant and threatened they would soon incorporate Rhode Island and Exeter, New Hampshire, which would mean she would again be in their domain.
"Anne Hutchinson resolved to move again as soon as possible. Her wanderings were not over. In hardly eight years, she had left England and then Boston. Now she would have to leave Rhode Island."
So, lastly, she relocates to Long Island, a part of the tolerant Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam. There, her Dutch neighbors had hostile relations with the local Indians and in a retaliatory raid, Anne (and many of her young children) came to a tragic end.
The book closes by following up on the lives of the many characters populating this story and what they wrote about Anne. LaPlante, a proud descendent of Anne Hutchinson, also travels to key locations in Anne's life in both England and New England. I appreciate that the author did not try to fictionalize this story but stuck to the raw facts and tried to interpret the world of the Puritans for the modern reader.
Two years later, Anne Hutchinson, 46 and pregnant with her 13th child, stood trial in Boston, first in a civil court, then in a church court, for sharing her own understanding of the Bible and critique of the local Puritan church. She was allowed no legal assistance and faced unspecified charges, yet her quick mind and confidence in her ability to express her spiritual beliefs allowed her some victories as the first female defendant in the New World.
I can recommend "American Jezebel," though as LaPlante recounts Hutchinson's two trials based on written transcripts, some of the theological arguments in her case are a little technical and inescapably tedious to wade through in the middle of the book.
Still, this book gave me a great historical perspective on the rise of Pilgrims (Separatists) and Puritans in England and their struggles with the Church of England and the Crown. I learned more about why both groups came to America in waves and settled in Massachusetts. "Following a decade, the 1630s, in which four thousand English families-- roughly fifteen thousand individuals-- left for the New World in three hundred separate voyages, Puritan emigration largely ceased."
Anne's early family life in England and her father's influence on her explains a lot about her self-confidence and religious leanings. And makes a real hero out of her husband, a prosperous businessman who can support their large family as well as a stalwart support for Anne's valiant stand against a hostile community.
The names of giant figures of the Puritan Period--John Winthrop, John Cotton, John Harvard, Sir Henry Vane are brought to life, along with a number of minor figures who played their part in this drama. Fortunately, Anne had devoted sons and sons-in-law who could stand up for her as well as several male "students" devoted to her understanding and teachings. Still, in the end, she was a disruptive element in the tight-knit, but fragile community and they pursued her case until they could reach a definitive result-- banishment.
One of the most surprising points of "American Jezebel" was LaPlante's claim that Anne was "the true midwife of Harvard University." "As a result of her heresy," the Reverend Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard, wrote in Harvard Magazine in 2992, "The colony determined to provide for the education of a new generation of ministers and theologians who would secure England's civil and theological peace against future seditious Mrs. Hutchinsons 'when our present ministers shall be in the dust,' as the inscription on the [college's] Johnson Gate puts it. At Harvard we may seek her memorial in vain, but without her it is difficult to do justice to the motivating impulse of our foundation."
Anne and her husband and much of her family relocated with her to Rhode Island. Her husband, Will, died at age 55 though there is no specific documentation of the date and cause of his death. Anne went into mourning and the Massachusetts ministers once again tried to get her to recant and threatened they would soon incorporate Rhode Island and Exeter, New Hampshire, which would mean she would again be in their domain.
"Anne Hutchinson resolved to move again as soon as possible. Her wanderings were not over. In hardly eight years, she had left England and then Boston. Now she would have to leave Rhode Island."
So, lastly, she relocates to Long Island, a part of the tolerant Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam. There, her Dutch neighbors had hostile relations with the local Indians and in a retaliatory raid, Anne (and many of her young children) came to a tragic end.
The book closes by following up on the lives of the many characters populating this story and what they wrote about Anne. LaPlante, a proud descendent of Anne Hutchinson, also travels to key locations in Anne's life in both England and New England. I appreciate that the author did not try to fictionalize this story but stuck to the raw facts and tried to interpret the world of the Puritans for the modern reader.
June 19, 2019
Fascinating account of the controversial Anne Hutchinson, a Puritan woman who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in the early-1600’s. She and the fledgling community’s government face-off over issues of theology. This book looks at the details of her court hearing.
I loved looking into this corner of history; LaPlante did an excellent job of training her searchlight into it. The historical background on the main people and places was just right; LaPlante did not overwhelm the reader with so much information as to lose sight of the main trail. Like all good non-fiction, the peripheral factoids along the way were just as interesting as the main story. Many of the details caused me to look further into those areas (or to plan to).
On the whole, it was a very interesting study of people in a time and place who held Scripture so dear, and whose convictions made them so bold and courageous, that it led them to vie for dominancy. And yet neither side got it quite right. You could say, (as my Pastor recently did), that they were so intent on guarding the Truth, they forgot about the Gospel.
Super interesting read; not over-long; well done.
May 17, 2015
When I read nonfiction, the books I tend to be interested in are usually about theology, history, or feminism. This biography contains all of that and more. I knew very little about Anne Hutchinson before reading this and came away with deep respect for the woman who consistently held her ground against the men who wanted her silenced and banished. Eve LaPlante did a nice job providing vivid historical, cultural, and religious context which made Hutchinson's story feel as relevant as ever. Though she lived over four centuries ago, Hutchinson's journery is an important one. Her voice mattered then, and it matters now.
March 31, 2019
I did learn a lot about early America and Puritan society, but that said, this book was poorly written and a very difficult and unenjoyable read. Way too many excerpts from early historical texts which were hard to follow and interpret. I'm sure there must be better books out there on Anne Hutchinson which are easier to follow and provide the same level of historical details without being weighted down by so many biblical references and quotes. Without thoughtful analysis and explanation the overuse of such passages serves no purpose.
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