"Eloquence, and Intelligence"

Called for a civil trial before the General Court of Massachusetts in November 1637, Anne Hutchinson ably defended herself against charges that she had defamed the colony's ministers and as a woman had dared to teach men. Her extensive knowledge of Scripture, her eloquence, and her intelligence allowed Hutchinson to debate with more skill than her accusers. Yet because Hutchinson claimed direct revelation from God and argued that "laws, commands, rules, and edicts are for those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway," she was convicted and banished from the colony, a sentence confirmed along with formal excommunication in the ecclesiastical trial that followed. Eventually, she was hanged for challenging Puritan orthodoxy.

Shown above is a Woodcut depicting Anne Hutchinson's sentencing to be banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (North Wind Picture Archives)