The fact that Anne Hutchinson is a woman did not add any additional hostility in her religious persecution. Anne Hutchinson was just one of many Men and women to be persecuted for challenging the puritan. Because there was a trial for Anne Hutchinson, and men and women were both tried along with the fact that the puritans were trying preserve there ways show that Anne Hutchinson was not treated unequal for being a women.
John Winthrop governor of Massachusetts, at the time of Hutchinson trial, fancied Massachusetts as a sort of religious experiment for the puritans and so he did not want any other believes other than those of puritans to disrupt or ruin this experiment. It is for these reasons that Quakers were flogged, fined. Banished and killed. But it didn't happen to just the Quakers but anyone who differed in ideas of the puritans. It is for this exact reason that Anne Hutchinson was persecuted.
Anne Hutchinson on Trial
Anne Boleyn
Statue of Anne HutchinsonShe endangered the experiment so she had to be punished being a women had little to do with it. She had her own religious meetings in her house preaching and debating about how illogical predestination was which was the basis of the puritan's believes. Putting ideas in the people mind the puritans had to persecute her for the sake of preserving the experiment.
Although women were meant to be in the kitchen in the puritan society, they were equal to men, but they were not equal in politics because they could not vote. However in the society and benefits from the government they were equal. If a man beat his wife, the man was tried and so in the courts men and women were equal. Heretics' man or women shared the same fates due to the count of Hershey, this was because john Winthrop wanted to preserve his experiment. Thus men and women were equal and being a woman did not mean having a harsher trial. For instance a Salem minister roger Williams was tried for challenging puritan believes on a political subject and at the end of the trial in 1635 he was banished. Three years later Anne Hutchinson is tried for being a heretic a much greater offense than that of Mr. Williams. In the end she was only banished, thus showing that for a much greater offense she received the same sentence as roger Williams, a man.
The fact the Anne Hutchinson received a trial shows that she was persecuted no more then any man. If she had been persecuted more for being a women then she would have been treated worse then a man. Since the men being persecuted were given trial it would mean that Anne would have to have no trial for her to be persecuted more then men. So since Anne Hutchinson received a trial and was banished and men had trials and were also banished, it means that Anne was not discriminated.
Anne Hutchinson received a trial and was banished, where as some Quakers have bee killed for the same issues. This shows that Anne did not receive additional hostility in her persecution. Her persecution was bout her disrupting this experiment of john Winthrop and how he wanted to preserve the puritan way of life. It is clearly seen that Anne received a fair trial and got what any other person got.
Portrait of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John...
Reverend John Wheelwright late in life; he was ban...
English: a photo of the Anne Hutchinson Mary Dyer ...