The Massachusetts Bay Colony Case Against Anne Hutchinson Analysis

Thomas Dudley then spoke up about the heart of the issue he has with Hutchinson. He had heard that she had told people that only John Cotton spoke on a covenant of grace, while other ministers spoke on a covenant of works. The courts tried to use this statement to convict her, but without proof, they were just words that she denied saying. The trial ended the first day and would continue in the days following. Her witnesses from the previous trial were brought up, the last of which was John Cotton.

Nevertheless, Anne’s beliefs eventually got her in so much trouble that the people banished her from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They took Anne to court and tried her for heresy, she escaped their arguments the first time, but the next day Anne changed her claim and the people banished her from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (“People & Ideas: Anne Hutchinson”). Even though Anne was a smart woman with strong religious views, those views came with conflict and turned the people against

He threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments if I continued obdurate.” (Shelley 94) The Crucible featured a trial in the third act where several characters accuse Abigail Williams, the main antagonist, of deceiving the court by falsely accusing people of witchcraft. As their evidence they present a follower to one of the girls, Mary Warren, to provide witness testimony to this. Abigail interferes by accusing her of witchcraft. As the trial goes on Mary Warren collapses under pressure and continues to go along with the game since she feared death. (Miller, Act 3) Both of the locations of the trials mattered to the outcome of the verdicts.

“Common history has painted Annand her young peers as selfish, vicious fakers who fueled the witchcraft trials out of boredom or spite. This portrait, however, is somewhat flawed as it appears that in Ann’s case at least, the parents of the afflicted must have a strong influence with the child, as did the other adult accusers. Initially, Ann was fed names by her parents and minister”(-Minerdescent). The girls that were tricked into believing that the accused were guilty were most likely convinced that this was pious and that God wanted them to accuse the innocent. Or the girls might be influenced by their religion, reverends, and ministers.

We bring Mrs. Hutchinson here on trial for her threatening crimes against our Puritan community and Massachusetts itself. Mrs. Hutchinson has vocally attacked the standing of our churches and authority, spoken blasphemy about “God speaking directly to her”, and has gone against the morals of her sex. We have enough evidence here to take Mrs. Hutchinson to her grave. One of Mrs. Hutchinson’s most atrocious claims is that our ministers are engaging in “faulty preaching” by saying church attendance and moral behavior are what determine if we are going to heaven or hell. Who is she, a woman more importantly, to say that our educated ministers are doing us wrong?

Abigail blames different people but she also blames John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth. Abigail goes to Proctor and begs for him back and also confesses to the accusations being false. Many people start going to court and confess to signing their souls over to the devil. Proctor, to save his wife’s life, tells the truth but the court does not believe him and he is hung. The Crucible does a great job in showing the prejudice and hypocrisy in real life events.

Just as Antigone had faced doubt and resistance in her movement with her sister, Ismene. Martin Luther King Jr. had faced resistance and doubt with the clergymen. The clergymen had written to King, “We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures justified in Birmingham.” The clergymen are trying to explain to Martin Luther King Jr. that their so called “days of new hope” are not days for King to make a difference with his protests. Just like the clergrymen, Ismene asks of her sister, “Now us, sisters, two alone, / And all the easier destroyed / If we spite the law and the power of the king. / No, we should be sensible” (23).

At this point in time employers are in no way providing alcohol for their employees, but instead are supplying them with Bibles. Politicians are petitioning to stop mail and locks on Sundays, showing the strong influence religion has on politics at this point. Religion is also a driving force in personal and work relationships. Women converted their husbands into joining the church, because the converted bore the weight of the non-converted on their shoulders, to the point where some died. Shopkeepers also tried to convert their workers, they changed their standards of hiring, and promised better wages to those who went to church and were temperate.

In Sojourner Truth’s speech that she delivered at the Women’s Convention of 1851, she addresses the inequalities that women and blacks met at that time in America. I will focus on the way Sojourner uses own experiences to get an emotional acknowledgment from her audience, correlating with them as both mothers and women. She also uses repetition and rhetorical questions to rebut opposing cases for gender equality. Sojourner makes biblical references during the speech to connect with her Christian audience and bring her audiences to connect on a more personal level. I will analyze the way Garnet and Sojourner uses rhetorical strategies to achieve a fruitful and powerful delivery of their message and features they share with Garnets speech as

parsonage. Even though the oppressed girls were among the main accusers during the trials, many historiographers believe the deranged girls parents, particularly Thomas Putnam and Reverend Samuel Parris, were inciting the situation with the girls and purposely influencing them to accuse certain people in the community they were not particularly fond of, to gain revenge or just out of spite. Cotton Mather was the minister of the Salem church, and truly believed in witchcraft. He had decided to investigate the unusual behavior of the children who belonged to John Goodwin, a Mason. John’s four children started complaining of sudden pains and began “…crying out together in chorus” (Silverman: 56).

March 1638, a most grievous trial has ended. In the Bay Colony a woman of God, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, has been banished from our commonwealth for her faith in the Lord our God. Mrs. Hutchinson has caused quite a stir since her arrival in Massachusetts. The controversy, centered around house meetings based on the teachings of John Cotton (WGBH Educational Foundation 2010) held by Mrs. Hutchinson, has landed her in this unusual predicament. Mrs. Hutchinson’s proclamation is that salvation comes through grace, not works (WGBH Educational Foundation 2010).

Church lady is similar to Silence Dogood because both are made up characters. Church lady is made by Dana Carvey who insults and ridicules everyone from celebrities to presidents. As for Silence Dogood this character is made by Benjamin Franklin. Also to makes fun such as the people of America and religious people and the abuse of women. Making the Church lady and Silence Dogood very alike as if time has not changed.

Angered by the Bible’s statements about women serving men, she wrote “The Woman’s Bible”. (7) This book challenged the biblical scripture from a woman’s standpoint. Stanton had to be very confident about her viewpoints to be daring enough to publish this story, considering the large amount of Christians who could be upset because she was

Daughters of an affluent slave owner in Charleston South Carolina, they began by speaking to female audiences. Soon after, they were giving speeches to men and women. These speeches created controversy everywhere the Grimke sisters went. In 1837 in Massachusetts, an association of the state’s most popular Congregational church issued a statement condemning any women “who so far forget themselves as to itinerate in the character of public lecturers and teachers.” Attacks made against them spurred the Grimke’s to make the equality of women a more important part of their message. They began to write and speak about women’s rights as well as abolitionism, a decision which would soon help to split the abolition movement.

Another important event that shaped the history of the Amerindian culture were the trials of Anne Hutchinson. “She began holding meetings in her home where she led discussions of religious issues among men and women. She was placed on trial before a civil court for sedition.” Anne Hutchinson’s trial displays the inequality of differences of thinking, in a society where there is only one absolute truth. Tituba is the very expression of forced eradication of Native Americans’ culture, she was succumbed to exploitation and even traveled across the sea to a remote and cold regions like New England to become acquainted of the misfortune of being treated like a witch in that excruciating process by which many innocent lives were lost and where history consequently acquires as the process of the witches of Salem. Tituba exposes the rudeness of European to Native Americans, but most importantly the mistreat of people that differed from the ideals of the beliefs.