A History of the American People

thing. Most did not. Williams was actually governor of his colony only in the years 1654-7, but
he was always the power behind the scenes. He set the tone. So he attracted the antinomians, but
not much else. Even as late as 1700, the colony numbered only 7,000 inhabitants, 300 of them
slaves.
When Charles II was invited back to govern the British Isles in 1660, and the Puritan
ascendancy ended, there was some doubt about the lawfulness of such colonies as Rhode Island.
So Williams hastened to England and on July 18, 1663 he obtained from the King a charter
confirming the privileges granted in 1644. This made the principle of religious freedom explicit
and constitutes an important document in American history. No person,' it read,within the said
colony, at any time hereafter, shall be in any wise molested, punished, disquieted or called in
question, for any difference in opinion in matters of religion, and who do not actually disturb the
civil peace of our said colony; but that all ... may from time to time, and at all times hereafter,
freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences in matters of
religious concernments.' Rhode Island was thus the first colony to make complete freedom of
religion, as opposed to a mere degree of toleration, the principle of its existence, and to give this
as a reason for separating church and state. Its existence of course opened the doors to the more
angular sects, such as the Quakers and the Baptists, and indeed to missionaries from the
Congregationalists of the Bay Colony and the Anglicans of Virginia. Williams himself was
periodically enraged by what he saw as the doctrinal errors of the Quakers, and their stiff-necked
obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge them. He was almost tempted to break all his own
principles and have them expelled. But his sense of tolerance prevailed; the colony remained a
refuge for all. The creation of Rhode Island was thus a critical turning point in the evolution of
America. It not only introduced the principles of complete religious freedom and the separation
of church and state, it also inaugurated the practice of religious competition. It thus accepted the
challenge the great English poet John Milton had just laid down in his pamphlet Areopagitica
appealing for liberty of speech and conscience: `Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose
to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to
misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in
a free and open encounter?' Who indeed? Rhode Island was now in existence to provide a
competitive field in which the religions-or at any rate the varieties of Christianity-could grapple
at will, the first manifestation of that competitive spirit which was to blow mightily over every
aspect of American existence.
Yet it must be said that, in the 17 th century at least, the way of the rebellious individual in
New England was a hard one, especially if she was a woman. The case of Anne Hutchinson
(1591-1643) is instructive. She was the first woman to achieve any importance in North
America, the first to step forward from the almost anonymous ranks of neatly dressed, hard-
working Puritan wives and mothers, and speak out with her own strong voice. Yet we know very
little about her as a person. Whereas Winthrop and Williams left books and papers, often highly
personal, which between them fill a dozen thick volumes, Mrs Hutchinson left behind not a
single letter. She published no books or pamphlets-for a woman to do so was almost, if not quite,
impossible in the first half of the 17th century. If she kept a journal, it has not survived. The only
real documentation concerning her is the record of the two trials to which she was subjected,
which naturally leave a hostile impression."
She came from Lincolnshire, one of thirteen children of a dissenting minister, Francis
Marbury, who encouraged her early interest in theology and taught her everything he knew. She
married a merchant, William Hutchinson, and had twelve children by him. But she kept up her