American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans

by Eve LaPlante

On March 24, 1638, one day before the start of spring, the eighteen “purchasers of Rhode Island” gave the Narragansett sachems forty fathoms of white wampum beads, ten coats, and twenty hoes as a “gratuity” in exchange for the slender, fifteen-mile-long island of Aquidneck. The marks of Miantonomo, Canonicus and his son, and two other Indians, and the signatures of Randall Holden, the twenty-six-year-old Bostonian who represented the Hutchinsonian men, and the Reverend Roger Williams appear on the land deed. Although the sachems did not share the English settlers’ concept of ownership, they agreed to instruct their people to vacate the island before the next winter. Of the transfer, Roger Williams later noted in a self-congratulatory mode, “It was not price nor money that could have purchased Rhode Island. Rhode Island was obtained by the love and favor which that honorable gentleman Sir Henry Vane and myself had with the great sachem Miantonomo.” The new proprietors of Rhode Island continued south on ships to their new home between the Sakonnet River and Narragansett Bay. After exploring the land, which was level and boasted fertile soil, the men agreed to make their settlement on the flat northeastern end, which had a fine natural spring and a pleasant saltwater cove surrounded by marsh. The Indians called this place Pocasset, which the English made into Portsmouth, after the port from which some had sailed. They pitched tents and built huts to live in while they cleared...