The Puritan Experiment

Abstract

This chapter describes the social and political background of English Puritanism and New England’s colonization, 1590–1645, through the lens of Hutchinson’s life and experience. It begins with Puritan politics in England (partly through the problematic career of Hutchinson’s father Francis Marbury), rising political and religious discontent, and the decision of many to emigrate. The chapter then explores the first fifteen years of Massachusetts’s history, emphasizing Winthrop’s personal political battles, church politics, and the colony's social divisions. The chapter analyzes this socio/economic/political world as a world of men, acknowledging that much of the Hutchinsonian crisis can be seen as a power battle among men. However, in this world Hutchinson played a dominant “male” role, faction leader, and while many have argued that she was treated like any male disrupter, in fact she was not. The chapter ends with the attacks upon her usurpation.