Anne Hutchison - Extremist or Rebel?

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telling them that God spoke to her directly, a privilege that only very powerful people in the Bible had. By making very powerful people look pathetic compared to her, she is making them feel weak and not in control; something that they rarely feel. We know that they never felt or rarely felt this way because in Visual Source Document 2 there is a minister on one of the pulpits and he looks very calm and in control while everyone below him are angry and mad. A rebel is, “a person who rises in armed resistance against an established government or ruler.” Using this definition and the facts listed above, we can conclude that Anne Hutchison undermined the ministers and other people of high rankings, making her more religiously extreme than even the leaders of the church.

However, if Anne Hutchison had been a true rebel, she would’ve been trying to get away from that kind of church or government, which she easily could’ve done. At that time hundreds of thousands of migrants searching for religious freedom were coming to America, with thousands of square miles to live in. Anne Hutchison had 60 followers or other extremists, as shown in the Anne Hutchison Time Line, “After a second church trial, “1638: Anne Hutchison is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony. She and 60 followers move to Rhode Island.” So if she was a rebel she could’ve taken her followers away (which was always an option, considering how much open land there was) and started a new form of the puritan church. Millions of people came to America during Anne Hutchison’s lifetime all seeking religious freedom (Anne Hutchison was one of those people) so if she truly wanted religious freedom she wouldn’t have stayed in the church causing a huge problem, she would’ve moved somewhere else to practice her religion. A great example of this is in the “Hunger Games” series where the main character starts a rebellion because people are being killed for others entertainment. The main character was a rebel because she wanted to destroy that form of government and its beliefs, not make them more extreme. If she had been an extremist like Anne Hutchison, she would have told the government to kill even more people for entertainment. The point is, Anne Hutchison was not a rebel because she did not want to change or destroy the ways of the puritan church, just make them more extreme.

In conclusion, the extremist known as Anne Hutchison that was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was banished for being an extremist and for undermining the authorities. She was not a rebel because a rebel is defined as someone who “rises in armed resistance against an established government or ruler.” Anne never used violence or “rose in armed resistance,” therefore making her unqualified to be considered a rebel. Also, Anne Hutchison never wanted power to change the ways of the church, she was just simply saying that she had been told she was saved in a different way, never saying anything about changing the ways of the church. Anne Hutchison also undermined the ministers and those who held a higher position than her, putting herself above the leaders of the church, showing she is much more extreme in the religious aspect than they are. This made her a threat, causing the leaders to banish her. From all of this evidence and inference, we can conclude that Anne Hutchison was a puritan extremist that put herself above