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emigrants.
1 Her powerful mind still continued its ac-
tivity; young men from the colonies became converts to her opinions; and she excited such admiration, that to the leaders in
Massachusetts it ‘gave cause of suspicion of witchcraft.’
2 She was in a few years
left a widow, but was blessed with affectionate children.
A tinge of fanaticism pervaded her family.
one of her sons, and
Collins her son-in-law, had ventured to expostulate with the people of
Boston on the
wrongs of their mother.
But would the
Puritan magistrates of that day tolerate an attack on their government?
3 Severe imprisonment for many months was the punishment inflicted on the young men for their boldness.
Rhode Island itself seemed no longer a safe place of refuge; and the whole family removed beyond New Haven into the territory of the
Dutch.
The violent
Kieft had provoked an insurrection among
the Indians; the house of
Anne Hutchinson was attacked and set on fire; herself, her son-in-law, and all their family, save one child, perished by the rude weapons of the savages, or were consumed by the flames.
4
Thus was personal suffering mingled with the peace ful and happy results of the watchfulness or the intolerance of
Massachusetts.
The legislation of that colony may be reproved for its jealousy, yet not for its cruelty, and
Williams, and
Wheelwright, and
Aspinwall, suffered not much more from their banishment than some of the best men of the colony encountered from choice.
For rumor had spread not wholly extravagant accounts of the fertility of the alluvial land along the borders
