Women Like Anne Hutchinson example essay topic

20 January 2002 ANNE HUTCHINSON Anne Hutchinson made the journey to the New World to break away from the Church of England. Anne wanted to feel free to express her increasingly Puritan views. Upon expressing these views, the government of Massachusetts believed that Anne was a great threat to the social and political order of Massachusetts Bay. Anne Hutchinson had claimed that a holy life was no sure sign of salvation and that the truly saved need not bother to obey the law of either God or man (Cohen, 47). Anne was basically telling the people that if they were already chosen by God to go to heaven, it did not matter whether they attended church because they were already chosen to go to heaven. Her claim also meant that if they were not chosen by God to go to heaven, it did not matter if they went to church because they were already chosen to go to hell.

This also meant that they didn't have to listen to the law of man. This was a great threat towards the government of Massachusetts. If all peoples were to live by what Anne claimed, there would not be any law-abiding citizens. The whole state would turn into a state of corruption. The government of Massachusetts was not going to let this happen. It was the very life of the colony that they should have conformity.

They had to protect the unity of the colony. The government felt that Anne challenged all male supremacy. Women like Anne Hutchinson, strong-willed and very talkative, were unheard of during this time period, and had no real place in society. The role of a woman during the colonization period of the New World was basically that of a housewife.

The chief duty as a wife was to her husband and children. Gathering a select group at her home, she would review and even reinterpret the ministers's emmons in the light of her own brand of Calvinism (Bailey, 45). She taught them that every person could ask and receive an answer from God if they would listen. If Anne would continue to express her thoughts amongst other women, all women would become a challenge to all male supremacy. The government of Massachusetts was forbidding letting this happen to their society. Anne Hutchinson thought that by going to the New World, she would be able to voice her opinion amongst women.

The New World was not ready for this kind of change, especially amongst women. Men believed that a woman's soul purpose was to be a housewife. Because of Anne's opinions and views, Massachusetts Bay felt that she was a threat to social and political order.

Bibliography

Bailey, T.A. and Kennedy, D.M. THE AMERICAN SPIRIT: SINCE 1865.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Cohen, L. ; Bailey, T.A. ; Kennedy, D.M. THE AMERICAN PAGEANT. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.