Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was banished from Boston in the first decade of settlement because her religious views were different from those of the ruling ministers. Believing that both men and women could receive grace only from God, she accused the ministers of preaching that “good works” signified holiness. Hutchinson attracted women to prayer meetings she held in her home in part because her beliefs put women’s souls on an equal footing with men’s souls. She was a respected midwife and wife of an established merchant, but was banished in 1638 for heresy. This statue, erected in 1922 as a gift of the Anne Hutchinson Memorial Association and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, was sculpted by Cyrus E. Dallin.
