Show as n mo S p wow N henl vcrne it 41 nal M aa J ekr A I 1 1 11 F 11 all pictures from augur san an american jezebel Jei Jese ebel beItt courtesy Dren Br catano by ELMO SCOTT WATSON UD HE average school history gives her only a brief paragraph and the chances are that not one american in ten could tell you who she sha was or when sheIl she lived ved or what was her importance in history wherefore it Is all the more remarkable 7 that within recent weeks there have hate appeared no less than three new books all dealing with mith the life of anne hutchinson who and what she was is suggested by the titles of two of them unafraid a life of anne hutchinson written by Win tilfred king rugg hugs and published by the houghton company and an am american jezebel the life of anne Hit aitchinson chinson which was written by helen augur and published by bren tanos where she lived and the pride of a new york county in the fact that she once dwelt there even though massachusetts claimed a greater part of her career Is indicated by the fact that the westchester county society in issuing volume VH of its publications chose otto Huf Iluf elands account of anne hutchin mores ons refuge in the wilderness as the leading article for that volume to which it gave the title of anne and other papers who was anne hutchinson let winnifred king rugs rugg in the introduction to her book unafraid an ewer that question in these words anne has been called by many names all the way from the new england jezebel to a prototype of joan of arc run the epithets whole heart edly applied by enemies or friends in between lie such labels as that proud dame that At hallah 1 I a notorious imposter I 1 a daunger ous instrument of the devell raised up by I 1 a breeder of heresies Her esies a persuasive advocate of the right of individual judgment a she gamaliel a dear saint servant and of god that last Is her husband speaking poor man lie he suffered more on tier her account than any one else As for anne place in bi history story this same biographer also sums gums it up well in these words what anne hutchinson stood for la Is another reason for examining her history she was one of the few feminists of her day she founded what was in essence the first womans comans club in america the meetings held in her house though primarily for reli religious zious instruction st were the forerunners of hundreds of thousands of meetings since her day wherever women convene to improve themselves or the rest of the world the hutchinson house which stood at what la Is now the northerly corner of washington and school streets boston was the birthplace of the clubs of america anne Hutchin sons character becomes more understandable when one considers her parentage she was the daughter of francis SI Bl arbury a minister of northampton england who had bad braved the wrath of his bishop for the sake eake of his belief in the reformation of our church in discipline and ceremonies led had been branded an proud puritan knave by that dignitary and had twice been put in jail her mother was a dryden a relative of the poet dryden who in his later years though became apostate from the puritan beliefs of his family considering the turbulence of her last few years the first 48 46 years of anne Hutchin sons life were strangely quiet bries ones her childhood was in alford and london in a heavy religious atmosphere that never lifted in 1612 at the age of twenty one she was wag married to william hutchinson a good hearted mercer who from the e rail 1 1 johm U I 1 cottica cott cA anne haicl BO beginning was dominated by ills his strong minded wife during the first 22 years of their married life she bore him 14 children and durins during those years the energy which later inter was to be spent mainly in religious controversy was fully occupied with household cares and the upbringing of her family but during that time the she traveled repeatedly to the neighboring town of old boston to hear rev her john C otton cotton preach in st Botolph seb cli cotton became a sort of an ideal of hers lid and when he was mas forced to leave england became of his nonconformist views and emigrate to america anne decided to follow what william hutchinson nut chinson thought of this uprooting of his home and family it not recorded but he be had probably long iong since learned not to oppose his cifes decisions so go in 1031 1631 to the new boston in massachusetts bay colony co lorly a raw little town of less than a thousand inhabitants living in rude one room log cabins cabin s and fragile frame houses on the edge of the wilderness came the Hutchin sons within a few months anne became the social leader and lady bountiful of the settlement she was a constant companion of john cotton who basked in her admiration tor for him she became a close clos e friend of the governor sir henry vane the younger and she became a recognized leader in the religious discussions which occupied so much of the colons col onys attention in tact fact it was these discussions which brought about her downfall the heart of the puritan religion was a belief that gods word was in the scriptures the cardinal sin against such a religion was the belief that gods inspiration could be transmitted dire directly etly to human beings so when there arose in the colony a faction called antinomians people not living by the letter of the law of god and believing that god revealed ills his laws directly to them when this faction grew under the leadership of anne hutchinson when meetings were held field in tier her home to discuss and criticize the sermons of the puritan ministers and when they asserted that most of the boston ministers were under a covenant of works and were tere trying to be saved by religious observances ser vances it was only a matter of time until anne should find herself in trouble the climax came in winthrop and the other puritan leaders had fled from england to escape religious intolerance but as so often happens those who suffer from intolerance are the first to become intolerant so they put anne on trial for heresy a trial that las has been compared to that of joan joad of are arc at rouen under the cross crosb questioning and testimony brought against tier her she he proved herself more than a match for her prosecutors put but just at the moment when it seemed that she had defeated tier her accusers she burst forth into a long speech describing gods revelations to her so she convicted herself she sh was banished from the colony and went to rhode island to make her home left a widow in 1612 ac 12 she set forth with her children a again aln in search of a new home first she settled on long island and then in what Is now west cl iester cou county rity N Y here her turbulent career came to a tragic end she arrived in the dutch colony at a time when the indians infuriated by at abue dutch deception and greed were engaged in periodic attacks on the whites it was in one ones of those attacks that anno anne hutchinson with ill all of her children but one and several ot of her neighbors sixteen persons in all were killed hilled helen augur in her biography biogia phy of A anne tells a dramatic story of 0 the tha e events e ts of that dreadful day in september anns anne hutchinson stood in tier her doorway looking at the fields of corn coin tawny in the morning sunshine she was thinking of what one of tier her u neighbors e agh had said the day before when the corn Is ripe and harvested the indians will break their truce As she stood there a group of Moh Mob egans padded softly up they exchanged friendly fil endly greed greetings and then the indians walked through the house and grounds as it if looking to see it if there were w ere any strange men about but everything was as quite as usual william collins and iran als were at work in the field and the children were at little tasks about the field and garden the indians nodded farewell carew ell and went away in the afternoon they aliey came back only this time there were more of them end and there were strange faces among them anne son wondered why they had put on so BO much demonic paint perhaps they were olt off on some strange indian ceremony cei emony for they seemed excited the dogs began to bark at the strange apparition and the Moh Mob egans asked to have them tied up for they were ere afraid w they would bite the dogs were tied up uncas men whipped out their tomahawks anne hutchinson saw four demons rush at tier her sons bread of adversity water of affliction file tion she had bad lived out that promise but god never warned her of this horror honor william colllns colline and francis were struck down their skulls crushed and bleeding anne collins fell beside tier her husband mis airs hutchinson caught susanna to her breast to shut out the sight from the screaming earning child katherine Kat berine was half over a fence but ft a mohegan iegan caught tier her by the hair and dragged tier her back to a stump anne hutchinson heard the sickening blow she saw haw mary and little william rush sobbing to her as if she could save them then two indians were upon tier her and the child thaid was boin from tier lier breast A tomahawk fell anne hutchinson was dead and for a final fast epitaph of tier liei american jezebel Je ebel helen augur writes w i ites boston has finally made up its quarrel with the woman boman it crist cast out as un savoury salt her mon ament stands before the insa hassa chu statehouse with a tei fer vent inscription to this courage ous exponent Ev of civil liberty and religious toleration there abi stands with a bible in her hand and a child snuggled against tier her new En glands heroine for civil liberty and religious toleration the principles for which she suf exile and death are drittel wr ittel into the constitution of tho tha unite states |