| Show all from aab ur an american jezebel Jex ebel brentano by ELMO SCOTT VATSON HE average school history gives her only a brief paragraph and the chalcea are that not one american in ten could tell you who she was or when she lived or what was her importance in history wherefore it Is all the more remarkable 7 that recent there have appeared no less than three new books all dealing with the life of anns hutchinson ho and what she was Is suggested by the titles of two of them unafraid a life of anne hutchinson written by king rugg and published by the II company and an american jezebel the life of anne which was written by helen augur and published by bren canoe where she lived and the pride of a bew york county in the fact that she once dwelt there even though massachusetts claimed a greater part of her Is indicated by the fact that the est chester county historical society in issuing volume VII of ita publications chose otto Huf elands account of anne hutchen eona in the wilderness as the leading article for tint volume to which it gave the title of anne hutchinson and other papers who was anne let king 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 loin of arc run the epithets whole heart edly applied by enemies or friends in between lie such labels as thai proud dame that Athal lih a notorious impostor a daunger ous instrument of the davell raised up by 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 hustind speaking poor man he suffered more on her account than any one else I 1 aa for anne place in history athla same biographer also turns it up well in these words what anne stood for Is another reason for examining her history she was one of the few feminists of her day she founded what was in essence the flarnt comans womans clab in america the meetings held in her house though primarily for religious in were tho 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 Is now the northerly corner of washington and school streets boston was the birthplace of the clubs of america anne Hutchin sons character be bomea more understandable when one considers her parentage she was the daughter of francis marbury a aln istar of northampton england who had braved the wrath of his bishop for the sake of bis belief in the reformation of our church in discipline and ceremonies had been branded an proud knave by that dignitary and had twice been put in jail her mother was a dry den a relative of the poet mho in his later sears though became apostate from the puritan beliefs of his family considering the turbulence of her last few years the first 40 years of anne s life were strange ly quiet ones her childhood was ebent in alford and I 1 ondon in a heavy religious atmosphere that never lifted in at the age of twenty one she was married to ellham hutchinson i good hearted mercer who from the f alf janne S tattle bosicot beginning was dominated by his strong minded wife during the first 22 years of their married life she bore him 14 children and during those years the energy which later was to be spent mainly in religious controversy was fully occupied with house hold cares and the upbringing of her family but during that time ahe traveled repeatedly to the town of old boston to hear rev john cotton preach in st botolphs church cotton became a sort of an ideal of hers and when be was forced to leave england because of his non conformist views and emigrate to america annc decided to follow what william thought of this uprooting of his home and family it not recorded but he had probably long since learned not to oppose his decisions so in to the new boston in massachusetts bay colony a raw little town of less than a thousand inhabitants ihling to rude one room log and fragile frame houses on the edge of the wilderness came the a few months anne became the social lead er and lady bountiful of the settlement she was a constant companion of jol n cotton who basked in her admiration for him she became a close friend of the governor sir henry ane the lounger io unger and she be came a recognized leader in the religious discussions which occupied so much of the colony s attention in 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 trans bitted directly to human beings so when there arose in the colony a faction called people not living by the letter of the law of god and believing that god revealed his laws directly to them when this faction grew under the leadership of anne hutchinson when meetings were held in 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 trying to be eadd by religious ob it was only n matter of time until anne should find herself in trouble the climax came in 1637 wynthrop 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 has been compared to that of joan of arc at rouen under the cross questioning and testimony brought against her she proved herself more than a match for her prosecutors but just at the moment when it seemed that slie had defeated her accusers she burst forth into a long speech describing gods revelations to her so she convicted herself she wa binl shed from the colony and went to rhode island to make her home left a widow in 1042 she set forth with her children agian in search of a new home first she settled on long island and then in wha s now west cheater county N Y here her tur bulent career came to a tragic end abo arrived in the dutch colony at a time when the indians infuriated by te dutch deception and greed were engaged in periodic attacks on the whites it was in one of those attacks that anne with all of her children but one and several of her neighbors sixteen persons in nil were killed helen augur in her biography of anne tells a dramatic story ot the events 0 that dreadful day in september 1613 16 13 anne hutchinson stood in her doorway looking at the fields of corn tawny in the morning sunshine she was thinking of what one of her neighbors had said the day before when alie corn Is ripe and bar ested the indians will break their truce As she stood there a group of Moh egans padded softly up they exchanged friendly greetings and then the indians walked through the bouse and grounds as if looking to see if there were any strange men about but everything was q alte as usual william colllns and fran els vere at work in the field and the little tasks about the field and garden the indians nodded farewell and went away in the afternoon they came back only this time there were more of them and there were strange faces among them anne hutchen son wondered why they had put on so much demonic paint perhaps they were ofa on some strange indian ceremony for they seemed excited the dogs began to bark at the strange apparition and the Moh egans asked to have them tied up foi they were afraid they would bite the dogs were tied up uncas men whipped out their tomahawks anne hutchinson saw four demons rush at her sons bread of adversity water of at sho had lived out that promise but god never warned her of this horror william col una and francis vv ere struck down their skulls crushed and bleeding anne collins fell beside her husband mrs hutchinson caught susanna to her breast to shut out the sight from the screaming child katherine was halt over a fence but a mohegan caught her by the hair and dragged her back to a stump anne heard the sickening blow she saw mary and little william rush sobbing to her as it she could save them then two indians were upon her and the child was torn from her breast A tomahawk fell anne was dead and for a final epitaph of her american jezebel helen augur writes boston has finally made up its with the woman it cast out as un savoury salt her mon ament stands before the aiassi chu statehouse with a fer vent inscription to this courageous exponent of civil liberty and religious there she stands with a bible in her hand and a child snuggled against her hew england s heroine lor civil liberty and religious toleration the principles for which she suf exile and death are vv ritten into the constitution 0 the united states yf iff |
