of the island from the Indians. Since his was the only name on the deed of purchase, Coddington claimed for himself all the “rights” of land monopolist and feudal lord, allotting no rights to homesteading settlers.

Anne Hutchinson, not yet an anarchist, now launched a political struggle against Coddington in early 1639 forcing him to give the entire body of freemen a veto over his actions. In April, Coddington was forced to agree to elections for his post as Governor, a position that he had expected to be his permanently by feudal right. Anne’s husband, William Hutchinson, defeated Coddington in the elections, and Coddington and his followers left Pocasset to found a new settlement called New Port at the southern end of the island. The victorious Hutchinsonians adopted aright does government have to rule the individual at all? In short, Anne Hutchinson had come to the conclusion of the “unlawfulness of magistry government.”

As Anne’s biographer Winifred Rugg put it: “She was supremely convinced that the Christian held within his own breast the assurance of salvation … For such persons magistrates were obviously superfluous. As for the others, they were to be converted, not coerced.”

Anne persuaded her husband to resign as one of Coddington’s major assistants in the colony. In 1642, soon after his resignation, William Hutchinson died. Deprived of her husband and disgusted with all government, Anne left Rhode Island to settle at Pelham Bay, near New York City. There, in the late summer of 1643, Anne and her family were killed by a band of