Covers the major individuals involved in the Antinomian Controversy of 1637 and 1638, including John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, and Anne Hutchinson. Also explores the difficulties faced by new settlers from England and other European countries.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 1: Colonialism and Nationhood
Part 6: The New England Colonies

2. JOHN COTTON
• One of the two most prominent
and influential ministers in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Began to fall out with other
church authorities when he
argued against the belief that
one could receive God’s
salvation only via preparation,
the doing of good deeds.
• Advocated a Free Grace
theology, believing that one can
receive salvation solely via an
inner acceptance of Jesus
Christ as one’s lord and savior.

3. THOMAS HOOKER
• The second of the two most
prominent ministers in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Disagreed with the Free Grace
theology of John Cotton and
Anne Hutchinson, but also fell
out with church authorities
when he argued that suffrage
should be extended to all
Puritan worshippers regardless
of gender and economic status.
• Left the colony in 1636 to found
the Hartford settlement, center
of the Connecticut Colony.

4. ROGER WILLIAMS
• Radical Puritan minister who
advocated separation of church
and state and absolute freedom
of conscience and worship.
• First American abolitionist,
making the first attempt to
prohibit slavery in the colonies.
• Sympathetic towards Native
Americans, he studied and
spoke their languages.
• Banished from Massachusetts
Bay in 1636 due to his radically
liberal political beliefs.

5. ROGER WILLIAMS
• Founded the Providence
Plantation in 1636 to offer
refuge to religious minorities
who had been persecuted by
the Puritans in Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay.
• Permitted absolute freedom of
conscience and worship in the
Providence Plantation.
• Also permitted majority rule in
all civil matters.

6. ANNE HUTCHINSON
• Advocate of Free Grace
theology (antinomianism) and
follower of John Cotton.
• Charismatic figure in Boston
who offered spiritual advice to
others even though she was
not, and could not be, a
minister in the church.
• Openly condemned the
prevailing views of the church
authorities, which caused
problems for challenging
religious orthodoxy as well as
gender norms.

7. THE ANTINOMIAN
CONTROVERSY
• Lasted from 1636 to 1638.
• Theological dispute consumed
the entire Massachusetts Bay
colony due to a gubernatorial
election. John Winthrop had
been defeated in the election of
1634, but he ran again in 1637.
The governor at that time, Henry
Vane, advocated Free Grace,
whereas Winthrop advocated
salvation via preparation. In
some sense, then, the election
was a referendum on the issue
of Free Grace. Winthrop won,
and Cotton and Hutchinson and
their followers were discredited.

8. THE ANTINOMIAN
CONTROVERSY
• After Winthrop’s victory in 1637,
Anne Hutchinson was put on
trial. On the last day of her trial,
she claimed that she had
received visions from God
which prophesied the
destruction of the colony.
• Winthrop presided over the trial
and banished Hutchinson from
the colony. Hutchinson moved
south and, in 1638, founded the
Portsmouth settlement near
Roger Williams’ Providence
Plantation. Other advocates of
Free Grace theology followed
her and settled nearby.

9. In 1663, King Charles II granted a royal charter to
settlers in the Providence Plantation, Portsmouth, and
neighboring settlements, which united them as the
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
• Earlier, in 1617, Dutch
settlers built a fort on the
Hudson River, on the site
of present-day Albany.
• The Dutch Government
created the colony of
New Netherland, which
consisted of present-day
New York and New
Jersey, in 1624.

10. MANAGING THE CATHOLICS AND THE DUTCH
In 1632, Lord
Baltimore, an English
peer, founded the
Province of Maryland
as a proprietary colony.
Baltimore was a
Catholic and intended
the colony to be a
haven for Catholic
settlers from England.
King Charles I granted
Maryland a charter
specifically to oppose
Dutch claims to North
American territory. He
did this by encouraging
English settlement
around the Delaware
River, directly south of
New Netherland.

11. THE DIFFICULTIES OF COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS

12. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 1: Colonialism and Nationhood
Part 6: The New England Colonies