Anne Hutchinson: Puritan Prophet (Library of American Biography) » (New Edition)

Timothy D. Hall, Central Michigan University

This new biography on Anne Hutchinson examines the life of this perennially fascinating and controversial woman within the dynamic social and cultural contexts of seventeenth-century England and North America.

Drawing upon the latest scholarship, Timothy D. Hall presents Hutchinson as a literate, highly intelligent agent of a militant Protestant vanguard pressing to extend English influence into the new world. Hall explores the charges brought against Hutchinson and analyzes her responses to them, and he provides thorough coverage of her continued influence in other communities after her trial and expulsion from the Massachusetts Bay colony.

Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each of the titles in the “Library of American Biography” series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. In addition, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.

Ch. 1 Growing Up Puritan in Elizabethan England 1

Ch. 2 Anne Hutchinson and the Church Militant 22

Ch. 3 "A Profitable Member among Us" 43

Ch. 4 Secret Quarrels 62

Ch. 5 Trouble in Churches and Commonwealth 81

Ch. 6 Trial 102

Ch. 7 "A Dayngerus Instrument of the Divell" 123

Epilogue: "The Sainted Anne Hutchinson" 144

Glossary of Terms 152

Study and Discussion Questions 160

A Note on the Sources 166

Index 173