Charles Brockden Brown, Notes

If you have found this page on the Web
and think it has been helpful to you,
please let me hear from you.
Also feel free to visit my Web Table of Contents
or my Homepage.
Dr. Rampey

Some notes on John Winthrop, the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
and the Matter of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson

The Massachusetts Bay Colony soon dominated New England. It grew to a population of 1000 by the end of 1630, its first year of settlement. Plymouth Colony, on the other hand, had grown to just 300 by then, its tenth year of settlement. Mass. Bay also was more "legal" (that is, its authority from the Crown more official), and it was more rigidly organized.

John Winthrop is a more difficult man to understand than is William Bradford. Winthrop's writing is less literary and more stilted; therefore, he does not seem to reveal as much about himself as does Bradford. There are other obvious differences between the two men:

Winthrop was only two years older but older when he became a Puritan;
Winthrop was relatively "establishment" and opposed the Separatist impulse;
although a fair man, Winthrop was more rigidly authoritarian than Bradford;
his journal contains fewer human touches than Bradford's and is less vibrant.

A number of controversies occurred during Winthrop's governorship. While these were religious differences on the surface, they were in effect challenges to authority. One of those was the matter of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson -- the "Antinomian controversy."

About the Antinomian controversy one historian has said of it, "Not only were the points obscure, but the discussion was carried on in a jargon which has become unintelligible." Briefly (and I stress briefly), it centered around a woman named Anne Hutchinson, who Winthrop himself describes as "a woman of a ready wit and bold spirit." Indeed, she proved a formidable opponent to Winthrop and the other magistrates. The "problem" -- which may not sound like much of a problem to us but was devastating to Winthrop and the colony -- was that Anne Hutchinson had gathered a small group of people about her who met at her home to discuss ideas. One particular idea got her into trouble --

antinomianism = anti + law
That is, law as in the word of God, specifically the laws which govern God's people. Antinomians argued that the saving grace of Christ absolved those who received that grace from adhering to the letter of the law. Without getting into the theology of the question, let's just say that the potential consequences of that idea were enormous, none of which ever materialized; but even discussing such matters was a direct threat to Winthrop's authority and the theocracy, and they could not allow it because the conservative Puritans sincerely believed that if everyone in the community did not adhere strictly to doctrine, then God's wrath would come upon them.

The important thing to learn about Winthrop from all this is that if his authoritarianism appears unattractive to us, we should remember that he was authoritarian not because he a mean man but because he was sincerely concerned about the welfare of his colony which could not thrive if it were visited by the wrath of God. So, when it came down to a question between Anne Hutchinson's liberty to express her ideas and the good of the colony, it was Anne Hutchinson who had to go.

If you'd like to read more about Anne Hutchinson, take a look at this very fine research paper that was written several years ago by a high school student in Falls Church, VA. The author apparently now is a student at Vanderbilt University.

Anne Hutchinson American Jezebel or Woman of Courage?
by
Rachel Buckingham