"Neither do I think that I ever put any dishonour upon you"
About this Quote
A defensive sentence, sharpened into a moral countercharge. When Anne Hutchinson says, "Neither do I think that I ever put any dishonour upon you", she’s not merely protesting innocence; she’s refusing the Puritan court’s right to define honor in the first place. The phrasing is surgical: "Neither" implies she’s answering an accusation already lodged, sliding her denial into the existing frame of interrogation while quietly disputing its premises. "I think" sounds modest, even deferential, but it’s a strategic wedge. In a setting designed to force confession, she plants a claim of interior authority: her conscience, her judgment, her relationship to truth.
The subtext is a clash between two hierarchies. The magistrates and ministers wanted obedience, especially from a woman whose Bible meetings had become a parallel power structure. Hutchinson counters with an ethic of intention and spiritual integrity: dishonor isn’t what the court declares it to be; dishonor would be a real violation of faith and duty, and she insists she hasn’t committed one. That "upon you" is pointed, too. It acknowledges the men’s social standing while suggesting their wounded pride is not the same thing as actual wrongdoing.
Context makes the line crackle. Hutchinson was tried in 1637 and banished from Massachusetts Bay for antinomianism and for stepping outside approved female roles. In that room, "dishonour" was code for destabilizing authority. Her calm denial reads as both self-preservation and indictment: if the rulers feel dishonored, perhaps it’s because their authority can’t withstand scrutiny.
The subtext is a clash between two hierarchies. The magistrates and ministers wanted obedience, especially from a woman whose Bible meetings had become a parallel power structure. Hutchinson counters with an ethic of intention and spiritual integrity: dishonor isn’t what the court declares it to be; dishonor would be a real violation of faith and duty, and she insists she hasn’t committed one. That "upon you" is pointed, too. It acknowledges the men’s social standing while suggesting their wounded pride is not the same thing as actual wrongdoing.
Context makes the line crackle. Hutchinson was tried in 1637 and banished from Massachusetts Bay for antinomianism and for stepping outside approved female roles. In that room, "dishonour" was code for destabilizing authority. Her calm denial reads as both self-preservation and indictment: if the rulers feel dishonored, perhaps it’s because their authority can’t withstand scrutiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Respect |
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