Anne Hutchinson See Susan Howe’S the BIRTH-MARK: UNSETTLING the WILDERNESS in AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY

MISTRESS ANNE MARBURY HUTCHINSON, “GRANDMOTHER OF TRANSCENDENTALISM”? For both Mistress Mary Rowlandson and Mistress Anne Hutchinson see Susan Howe’s THE BIRTH-MARK: UNSETTLING THE WILDERNESS IN AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY. The chapter “The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” has a useful digression on Anne Hutchinson (pages 115-22), but mostly concerns how Governor John Winthrop’s and other texts have come down to us in edited form — what has gotten cut versus what has been brought forward, and what have been the likely reasons for this selectivity. But, does the more proper line of descent run from Mistress Hutchinson and the Reverend Roger Williams as rebels against tyranny, by way of the Transcendentalists, down to today’s humanists and feminists, or is this overshadowed by a line of descent that runs from Hutchinson and Williams to David Koresh and the Christian Militia movement, as fellow fanatics for purity and therefore as threats to the limited pluralism that was at that point beginning to make the Bay Colony somewhat more congenial? The fact of the matter was that Mistress Hutchinson was an extraordinarily dangerous person to have around. She was not more liberal than other Puritans, but far more conservative. She believed, in fact, that she could tell by just looking at a person —and that she could announce— that that person had been pre-ordained by God to Salvation in Heaven, or that that person had been pre-ordained by God to Damnation in Hell.1 1. The Reverend Peter Bulkeley of Concord described Mistress Anne Hutchinson as “That Jezebell whom the Devill sent over thither to poison these American churches.” Was he merely a sexist idiot? HDT WHAT? INDEX ANNE HUTCHINSON ANNE HUTCHINSON 1635 In the Massachusetts Bay colony, after the completion of the worship services at the chapel, Mistress Anne Hutchinson had begun to offer meetings in her home. Within a month after his landing in the Bay colony, Henry Vane would be admitted to membership in the church at Boston, and within three months, he with the Reverend Hugh Peters would initiate a meeting at Boston of the principal magistrates and ministers of the colony with a view to healing some distractions in the commonwealth and “effecting a more firm and friendly uniting of minds.” At this meeting Vane would declare himself in favor of a more rigorous administration of government than had thus far been pursued. In a later timeframe the Reverend William Hubbard would have his own imitable comments on this “lustre of years” in the Massachusetts Bay colony. CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE READ HUBBARD TEXT 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANNE HUTCHINSON ANNE HUTCHINSON Chapter XXXVII. Ecclesiastical affairs in the Massachusetts, from the year 1636 to 1641. Chapter XXXVIII. Disturbance in the Massachusetts Colony, in New England, from the year 1636 to 1641, by Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson. Chapter XXXIX. The occasion of spreading erroneous opinions in New England, and much disturbance occasioned thereby in and about Boston, in the years 1636, 1637, etc. Chapter XL. A Synod called in New England, Anno 1637, at Cambridge. The occasion and success thereof. Late Spring: When the Dyers set sail for the New World, Mary Dyer, having lost her first infant at birth, was pregnant again. They would arrive at the peninsula of the Tri-Mountain (Pemberton Hill, Beacon Hill, Mount Vernon) during the 5th month of her new pregnancy. In the Dyer home on Summer Street, the fireplace would be wide enough to accommodate 7-foot lengths, a great saving in the labor of chopping firewood. The couple would be sleeping in a room behind this fireplace while their indentured servants would be climbing a ladder to sleep in the loft under the peak of the roof. The couple, who would soon apply to join the Reverend John Wilson’s congregation, had been well educated. William Dyer would occupy himself in Boston as he had in England, as a milliner, and would become a friend of the Reverend Roger Williams. Mary would become a friend of Mistress Anne Hutchinson and of Assistant William Coddington, who were Antinomians. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT ANTINOMIAN CONTROVERSY 1636 The “coaster,” which is to say, coastal tradesman, John Oldham was murdered by a group of Pequot men aboard his coasting vessel, and this was a part of what would precipitate the first white war against this tribe. Mistress Anne Hutchinson opposed this race war. In a later timeframe, the Reverend William Hubbard would have his own imitable comments on this “lustre of years” in the history of New England. CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE READ HUBBARD TEXT Chapter XXXIV. John Oldham murdered by the Indians of Block Island; how discovered, and the war that followed thereupon with them, and the Pequods, their abettors. Chapter XXXV. The state of affairs in the Massachusetts, Anno 1636, while Mr. Vane was Governor. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX ANNE HUTCHINSON ANNE HUTCHINSON In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mistress Mary Dyer became best friends with Mistress Anne Hutchinson: MARY DYER ANNE HUTCHINSON Mary also became pregnant. October: Mistress Anne Hutchinson, a follower of the Reverend John Cotton, was examined by a board of Boston divines in regard to her tendency to make lay comments upon their sermons. This painting of Anne preaching at her home was done by Howard Pyle in 1901 and we need not suppose that the clothing styles depicted are authentic: READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANNE HUTCHINSON ANNE HUTCHINSON 1637 Governor Henry Vane had been noticed to be insufficiently active in the campaign against the influence of Mistress Anne Hutchinson (with many of whose sentiments he did in fact agree). The General Court, in order to subdue Hutchinson’s influence, mandated that no strangers should be received within the jurisdiction of the colony except such as should be allowed by some of the magistrates. When assistant governor John Winthrop put forward a “Defence,” Vane responded with “A Brief Answer to a certain Declaration made of the Intent and Equity of the Order of Court that none should be received to inhabit within this Jurisdiction but such as should be allowed by some of the Magistrates.” In this year’s election, Winthrop was able to replace Vane as governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony. When Vane sought to take his seat as a representative to the General Court, the other representatives rejected him; however, the voters immediately reconfirmed his place in that body. Dr. Thomas Browne settled in Norwich, England, and would establish a medical practice. The Puritans initiated their ethnic cleansing of their New England. “It was a fearfull sight to see [300 to 500 Pequot Indians] thus frying in ye fyer [of their burning homes at Mystic Village] and ye streams of blood quenching ye same, and horrible was ye stinck & sente ther of,” Plymouth Plantation’s Governor William Bradford would record. He would add the obvious, “ye victory seemed a sweete sacrifice.” The Pequot tribespeople whose land the whites coveted enough to kill for also equated war with fire, of course. Therefore they frequently colorized their faces, bodies, and weapons using vermilion and charcoal or graphite — hence they were “redskins.” As for non-incendiary weapons, both the Puritans and the Indians favored English snaphaunces and Spanish rapiers, but such weaponry cost more than most could afford so the militiamen sported cheap cutlasses and ancient matchlocks while the native warriors sported spears, hand-axes, and self-bows. Mistress Anne Hutchinson was convicted of sedition and expelled from the Massachusetts colony (you see, women weren’t supposed to originate religious ideas). FEMINISM READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX ANNE HUTCHINSON ANNE HUTCHINSON January 20, Friday (1636, Old Style): In Boston, the Reverend John Wheelright, who had been influenced by Mistress Anne Hutchinson’s commitment to salvation by faith alone, and had denounced the current dogma of salvation by works, was convicted of sedition and contempt. Due to the strength of this Antinomian heresy among the common people, however, their reverend could not immediately be punished. ANTINOMIAN CONTROVERSY 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANNE HUTCHINSON ANNE HUTCHINSON May 27, Saturday (Old Style): The outcome of the election was that assistant governor John Winthrop replaced Henry Vane as Governor. It was well understood locally at the time that this political victory meant that the heresy of Anne Hutchinson would not go unpunished, and that Boston would become in effect a theocracy. Soon, Governor Winthrop would be shocked and horrified: when Mary Dyer gave birth, the infant was “a creature so horrible in its malformation as to bear only the slightest terrifying resemblance to mankind. Something such as only a nightmare in hell could conceive.” The infant seemed to have no skull! The Reverend John Cotton, offering the midwives, Mistress Hutchinson and Goody Hawkins, what was supposed to be a helping hand, buried the body secretly at night. Although this was in accordance with English common law it was in defiance of the theocratic rule of Governor Winthrop. What could be secretly wrong with these people, that out of them would come such abomination? Thus in evaluating what happened in the Bay Colony to the Dyer family, one must bear in mind not only the Puritan prejudice against what was termed “levelling” in religion, but also the existence of essentialist superstitions. Bear in mind also that there may have also been at work a prejudice against the very name “Dyer,” as in “the stain on the dyer’s hand” — because this image has since time immemorial been a trope for “clearly evident contamination”: October 26, 1853: Ah! the world is too much with us, and our whole soul is stained to what it works in, like the dyer’s hand.

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