Dissenters

• Among the 30,000 immigrants that came in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, there were a contingent of "dissenters." This is the term used to identify persons who disagreed with the teachings of the Puritans who were the dominant population in Boston.

• Two of the most famous dissenters were Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams.

• Anne Hutchinson took issue with the prohibition against women being teachers in the church. She held bible studies in her home in which men were students and she was the teacher. She also loudly proclaimed that the main Puritan leaders in Boston were false teachers (except one, Rev. Cotton). Further, she agreed with the Quaker teaching that God speaks directly to her, not just through the bible.

• Roger Williams was an educated and ordained Puritan Minister. He led churches in Salem and Plymouth. He had three opinions that most Puritans found reprehensible. 1) He became a Separatist, he did not believe that the Anglican church could be purified; 2) He believed that the Indians should be respected, their lands should be left to them, and they should be treated as equals; 3) He believed in toleration of all religious beliefs: Quakers, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, Catholics, etc. It was this third opinion that got him in the most trouble.

DECISION: You are John Winthrop, Governor of the Colony. What do you do with these two dissenters?

Click here to find out what Winthrop actually did.