Anne Hutchinson

I have to confess that tonight's reading assignment is the only one that I have truly enjoyed for a long time. I didn't know anything about Anne Hutchinson prior to the reading, and I believe what fascinates me the most is Anne Hutchinson's courage and wisdom to fight for her freedom, and the freedom of all women: the freedom of believing in what you believe and the freedom for women to have their rights. She realized the Puritan injustice among the community and wanted to voice her opinion to improve the situation by developing her own theological ideas and giving sermons. Many people, both men and women, were impressed by her intellectual ability and followed her. Westerkamp states that " (Anne Hutchinson is) the pioneer for civil and religious liberty, crusading against Puritan." I agree that later in her career she did seemed to fight against Puritanism by challenging Winthrop and expressing her belief in direct revelation and communication with God; however she did support Cotton's idea of Puritanism when she moved from England to Massachusetts. I think it was very brave of her to say what she believed in in front of public. We are who we are and we should act the same way as our minds do even though it means challenging the authority.
"In presenting an alternative to Winthrop's society, an alternative that was outside human control, she was offering the freedom from law and structure that revelation gave her." (P12)
She realized the importance of communication personally with God, even the situation is "outside of human control". It is because of this revelation from God, individualism, all people are equal before God and people, especially women, have the right to speak, to vote, and express their mind freely. However, her identity of a woman put her in jeopardy. "In attacking Hutchinson's femaleness Winthrop was attacking her spirituality." This is a very interesting point that is brought up by Westerkamp. In a society that was deeply influenced by man's hierarchy, being a woman was a disadvantage for practicing the freedom of speech, in this case, developing her theological thoughts. What if Anne Hutchinson was a man and everything she had done was still the same. What would have happened?