Ernesto Calderon History 1700-35 February 25, 2014

Response Assignment #1 (Ch. 1-5)

Based on what you learned from the film God in America: A New Adam, what does the Anne Hutchinson case tells us about how Puritans understood religious freedom? Explain. The Puritans were a colony of people that had strongly beliefs against the way Christianity had become. They pretty much escaped from England to start their own beliefs, another words, they wanted to restart Christianity to their own beliefs. That is how they get their name Puritans, to purify the church. They knew that starting a new colony would be hard, if anything the odds to success were against them.

The first year, about two hundred of them died based on weather, diseases, bad nutrition, and the really cold winter. For them, they thought their god was testing them and see if they would believe. Their belief was if they would to be good, god would bless them, if not, god would turn back on them. At the end of 1634, a lady named Anne Hutchinson arrived to Boston with her husband. She was a very well educated lady that knew her bible from front to back. She had a particular story that caught many people attention. She believed that god has come to her and spoken directly to her. She participated in many child births and thats where she started spreading her idea. Puritans believed that she was misinterpreting the scriptures and the idea of salvation. They believed that the only way for salvations was on the bible. For Hutchinson, there was

other ways for salvations and that was if god came to you without the help of any other authority or the bible. This really bugged the main leader of the puritans John Winthrop because he was afraid that his colony would come to an end. Winthrop lived yards away from Hutchinson and notice people coming in and out her home which created controversy between her ideas and his. She was then sent to court and convicted for sedition. After that, she was put to jail and on the spring of 1638 she was forced to leave the colony to never come back. The Puritans were not open to anything other than their own beliefs. They did not have any kind of freedom towards other religions. I guess you could say they escape from England to restart Christianity therefore they thought that they were the only people that had the right to say and take over their beliefs. Even though Hutchinson left the colony, her words were listened, and years later they eventually spread to the remaining religions. Puritans would kick out if not exterminate those who opposed to their beliefs. They remained in their own little world of believing on the bible and living an unsecure life whether they would be saved or not.