Anne Hutchinson came to New England in 1634 and became a thorn in the side of the Puritan leadership. Anne was the first woman in this country to start a religious sect (Antinomian Party). She held meetings and lectured on secular and theological matters which the Puritan leadership did not allow a woman to do. She attacked the basic tenet of Puritanism: the doctrine of salvation through works. Hutchinson was tried and convicted of heresy and sedition before the | General Court of the Massachusetts Colony. She was excommunicated. The judge said she had assumed postured to which only men were entitled. She settled in Rhode Island after being thrown out of Massachusetts but there too an outspoken woman was not to be tolerated. She next moved to New York, where today the Hutchinson River and the Hutchinson River Parkway are named after her. She and all but one of her children were killed by Native Peoples in 1643. |
Female Adventurers |
|