This got started because everyone was talking about the Full Moon on the Winter Solstice, and how there was a Lunar Eclipse that night, and how this is very rare. In fact, it hasn't happened since 1638. Curious, I consulted the Oracle of All Knowing (the Internet), and got a list of events that occurred that year... one of them being the banishment of Anne Hutchinson.
I absolutely LOVE stories like this one. Actually, I find the day to day business of an organized religion rather boring. But, just let me find some sort of religious drama, and it suddenly becomes more fun for me that WWF wrestling! (not that I enjoy it when I'm in the middle of it... I just like to watch ;-)
Most of us heard about Anne Hutchinson in elementary school. I remember seeing the same picture that is in Wikipedia in my 7th grade history textbook (THAT I remember... but my current phone #? no). Now that I am older and have more experience, I can actually appreciate the story.
First of all, let me say, the colonists that came over here from Europe were gutsy people. Now that I have LIVED in the North East, experienced the weather, and got to know the more rural parts, including some of the Natives, say what you will, the colonists were some fearless folks.
The weather in Mass. is MUCH gnarlier than England. Anne LEFT England, by my calculation, at 43! And, also, keep in mind, when those folks got there, there was no cities or roads or utilities or ANYTHING, except lots of wood, wildlife, and some generally (and rightly) annoyed residents. The settlers had to cut down the trees by hand and build their own houses. At some point while I was living back there, it dawned on me how INCREDIBLY difficult life for those first folks must have been. And, they had to do all of that after being on a boat for months. While looking for a reference for how long the voyage would have taken Anne, I found this article... an eyewitness journal entry by a man that traveled from Germany to Philadelphia in 1750. (Of note, I have an ancestor from Germany that made that same journey with this man).
So, this woman leaves her home in England to make THIS JOURNEY, in her 40s, because she followed in the footsteps of her father, who was already a "dissident" Puritan clergyman. We think of Puritans as being conservative, uptight people, but there was a reason. These people were seriously traumatized before they ever got to America. They were founded by a group of Marian Exiles, and these people spent a lot of their lives fleeing for their lives. Small wonder why they had so many social problems... they were generationally traumatized.
But then. Anne Hutchinson didn't even get along with THEM. She started holding prayer meetings in her home, and then she started preaching her own message, and I imagine that, at some point, a power struggle developed between her and the local clergy. The Puritans were very strict in their doctrine (which is often a psychological response to long-term perpetual fear), and Anne had the audacity to preach that it was a blessing to be a woman, not a curse. She also preached that salvation came at accepting Christ, and what you did before or that could not change that. In other words, even if you sinned, you were still saved. That is a dangerous doctrine for a relatively small group of people in a hostile area. It could become a threat to the social fabric as people would start to make their own rules, and the clergy would not be in charge anymore So, she was charged with "traducing the ministers". She was 46 and pregnant for the 15th time.
Clearly, the judgment had been made before the trail even began, and so, in the end, she said these words:"...you have no power over my body, neither can you do me any harme, for I am in the hands of the eternall Jehovah my Saviour, I am at his appointment, the bounds of my habitation are cast in heaven, no further doe I esteeme of any mortal man than creatures in his hand, I feare none but the great Jehovah, which hath foretold me of these things, and I doe verily beleeve that he will deliver me out of our hands, therefore take heed how you proceed against me; for I know that for this you goe about to doe to me, God will ruine you and your posterity, and this whole state."
This really annoyed the judges, which were, of course, all clergy, one of which responded ""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." AWESOME! You go, Anne! :-) They also charged her with "lewd and lascivious conduct" for having both men and women in her house at the same time for prayer meetings, and, of course, with blasphemy.
After banishment, she went to what is now The Bronx, New York (then, nowhere near as "civilized" as now). What she preached actually appears to be Individualist Anarchism, which is pretty amazing, coming from a "Puritan" She and almost all of her family were killed up there by some Natives who were really angry at how the Dutch were treating them. Apparently, she and the Natives were on good terms, but her family got killed in the crossfire of the bigger conflict.
So, thank you Mother Moon, for eclipsing on the Solstice, so that I would look deeper and come to know Anne Hutchinson. Anne, I am really pleased to meet you. :-)
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