UTOPIAN PROMISE - Annenberg Media

WINTHROP WEB ARCHIVE
[1363] Anonymous, John Winthrop
(17th cent.), courtesy of American
Antiquarian Society. John Winthrop was
the first governor of Massachusetts Bay
Colony. His somber-colored clothing
marks him as a Puritan, while his ornate
neck ruff indicates his wealth and social
status.
[6751] Richard S. Greenough, Statue
of John Winthrop (1876), courtesy of
Architect of the Capitol. This statue was
given, along with one of Samuel Adams,
by the state of Massachusetts in 1876 to
the National Statuary Hall Collection in
the United States Capitol. The choice of
Winthrop indicates his status both as a
prominent American and as an allegorical
representative of the nation’s ideals.
[6942] Photo of a Statue of Roger
Williams, Providence, Rhode Island
(2002), courtesy of Christopher Moses.
A Puritan whose unorthodox views alienated
him from both the Massachusetts
Bay and the Plymouth colonies, Roger
Williams has been reclaimed by some
contemporary scholars as a democratic
and pluralist hero.
14 UNIT 3, UTOPIAN PROMISE
of works and a covenant of grace will be interested in the political and
social implications of this controversy. Ask them to think about the
role gender plays in Winthrop’s attack on Hutchinson. Would her
preaching be so threatening if she were not “a woman of a ready wit
and bold spirit”?
■ In September 1638, Winthrop notes that Anne Hutchinson delivered
a stillborn, misshapen child. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, stillborn children and children with birth defects were
called “monstrous births” and understood to represent either God’s
displeasure or the devil’s influence over the mother. How does
Winthrop describe Hutchinson’s “monstrous birth” in his Journal?
Why does her miscarriage seem so significant to him? Ask students
to think about Winthrop’s attitude toward motherhood, women’s
bodies, and childbirth. Keep in mind that Hutchinson served as a
midwife within the Puritan community for many years prior to her
banishment.
QUESTIONS
Comprehension: Winthrop’s Journal chronicles a number of the problems
and controversies that challenged the early settlers at
Massachusetts Bay. What kinds of external and internal threats
undermined the unity of the group? What happened to people who
deviated from orthodox religious tenets? What rhetorical strategies
does Winthrop adopt when characterizing people whose beliefs
were different from his own?
Context: The “Model of Christian Charity” was composed before
Winthrop and the Puritans disembarked in Massachusetts. How do
the hopes and values the sermon espouses compare to the realities
Winthrop later recorded in his Journal? Does Winthrop’s sense of
the community’s mission and his own responsibility to further it
change over time?
Exploration: Why has Winthrop’s metaphor of the “City on a Hill” had
so much influence on American culture? Do you see evidence of the
endurance of this idea within contemporary public discourse?
Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672)
Anne Bradstreet was born in England in 1612 to well-connected
Puritan parents. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was unusual in his commitment
to teaching his daughter literature, history, and philosophy,
and Bradstreet benefited from an extensive classical education such as
was usually reserved only for male children. Her sixty years of life
were troubled by recurring sickness and ill health, beginning with an
attack of smallpox when she was sixteen. Shortly after recovering, she
married her father’s assistant, Simon Bradstreet. She immigrated to
America with her husband and parents in 1630 as part of the group
that sailed with John Winthrop on the Arbella. Although she later
admitted that her “heart rose” in protest against the “new world and
new manners” she encountered when she landed in Massachusetts,