The excommunication given so many centuries before. So let me tell you a little bit about our speaker. E eve leplank has published five nonfiction books. Two of them are especially relevant to our period. One is american jezebel, which is for sale outside after the talk. And it tells the true story of eves ancestor, the colonial heretic and founding mother, Ann Hutchinson. The one who was finally brought back into it church and the second ancestor who will be mentioned this evening is the salem witch judge, samuel sul and that book won the 2008mous ps book award for nonfiction. A critic noted recently or i dont know when it was that laplank sees Ann Hutchinson and samuel sual not as the dark puretens many believe them to be but living presences, even models of rectitude into the 21st century. So please, welcome eve for her remarks. [ applause ] thank you, rose. And thank you to the partnership and thank you all for coming tonight. Before i start i wanted to think for a moment where we would be in the i think that was one of the most interesting things about writing about the 17th century was trying to go back in the places we know and envision what they would have been like back then. So take good breaths as we go. Were here to talk about monstrous births and powerful midwives, the battle over women was bodies in 17th century boston. Theres a wonderful phrase i learned while i was writing the biography i wrote of Ann Hutchinson. Its one of my favorite quotes and its spoken by a history professor who writes about womens roles in American History and the quote is the problem of Ann Hutchinson is the problem of the public woman. And what exactly is the problem of the public woman . The problem is the term itself, public woman is an oxy moron. In early amare scua public woman did not exist and im not talking about prostitutes. Im talking about a woman who has a formal public role in society as a leader of some kind. Women in 17th century new england could not teach in public, or lead as governors nor as judges nor ministers and they could not vote. They could not defendant their country as soldiers. They could not hold property in their own name and they could not sign a legal document. Why, you may ask . Women could not do all these things because theyre naturally i inferior to men and unable for deep thought. The woman who achieved anything was said to have acted aabove her sex. She was a man in petty coats. Thats a quote. And they explained that government, in all of its functions, commercial enterprise, all these pursuits in occupation assigned to men demand it efforts of a mind indue wouind indued with it powers of close and comprehensive reason. A philosopher explained that women are inhcapable of penetrating truths that there slightly harder to discover. Because of it del case of their brain fibers. Thats a quote. I guess the native irrationality and powerlessless of we78en comes down to neurology or what some people call neurosexism. Those things i just said about how women receive are all true. Its not all some bad joke. Its also not a joke that american women in the 21st century still hold relatively little public power. To digress briefly from our subject, women in america a century ago still could not vote. 50 years ago no woman had served on the Supreme Court and just a very few served in congress. Even today nearly 400 years into the american experiment, fewer than 20 of our National Legislature is female and thats a historic high. Fewer than 5 have women at the hel hadm of major corporations. Men have served 45 times as the nations chief executive while no woman ever has. The only female major Party Candidate for president was met with crowds of americans crying hang her had and lock her up. As if she were a witch. Which brings us back to the 17th century when women had no formal public power but there were certain kinds of power that women did have. Private powers, domestic powers, even some educational and religious powers within their own homes and the homes of other women. Women taught children and younger women how to read and understand the bible which is the text of the world that people lived in, in boston. Women raised children and crops. Cared for land and gardens and complex house hrlds. They grew herbs used as medicines. They healed the sick and cared for the wounded. Womens greatest realm was child birth because midwifery was an exclusively female domain. Birth is such a dramatic significant time, especially in an era where so many women and babies died after birth that this was a crucial time thin 17th century. Although powerless in public were charged with saving the lives of women and babies, including those of new englands most powerful men. For example john winthrop, the man who red the move to banish Ann Hutchinson to massachusetts had had recently welcomed her if to his home to deliver one of his children and tend to his had wife. As the scholar has written women provided a large part of the medical care in early colonial new england. A practice that tied them to all parts of their communities and gave them access to social and legal authority. But even that power held by women serving as domestic healers and medical practitioners held dangers for them. The 17th century had its own special concept of medical malpractice. If a blurirth resulted in a dea mother or informed infant, the midwife could be held responsible. Monstrous birth covered anything from a stillborn still birth, birth defect or physical abnormality in the child and it had to be someones fault, eether the parents or the attending midwives. People in early boston as in early modern europe considered a monstrous birth a sign of sin in someone near the if fnt. Infant. Therefore a midwife could be seen as an ally of the devil or a witch. You see the aseeshiation between women and witch craft and female power and theres the unique realm of power held by women as private healers bled into their public role as witches. Lets look at Ann Hutchinson, who in addition to being a religious leader was a midwife, a skill that she had learned in england from her mother. Ann hitchenson was born in 1591 during a reign of Queen Elizabeth the first. One of the rare women in history to rule an empire. She was the mother of a midwife cousin of the poet laureate and a minister who also taught his gifted daughter his skills, interpreting and teaching about scripture. Hutchinson grew up to be both midwife and a kind of female preacher, teaching other women about their faith and the babl in her home which was an acceptable activity for a high status pureten woman in england and she continued both activities, midwifery and teaching other women about scripture in boston here where she moved with her had husband and 12 of her children in 1634. The bible talks she gave in her parlor were so popular with women that they soon apracted as many as 80 people at a time ifcluding inhfluential men who n 1536 completed it founder for governor. Soon after that winthrop threatened, called her beor the Colonial Court in the charge of heresy for behaving in a manner not befitting of her sex. Thats a quote. This is also a quote. This was not tolerable for a woman to teach men. During two days of interrogation by him in the court, hutchinson defended herself brilliantly when her 40 male judges banished her from Massachusetts Bay colony. A few weeks before that trial, Ann Hutchinson had been present at a socalled monstrous birth. It had been difficult for a young woman named mary dire. So jane hawkins had sent for Ann Hutchinson hoping she could help had. Unfortunately mary and william dires baby girl a condition meaning her brain was undeveloped and she died soon after birth. Mistress hawkins and hutchinson and the reverend john caught whoon also been called on to help decided to bury the babys body secretly to protect the dires from the public shame that would naturally follow the monstrous birth. Of course people gossiped about the baby and governor winthrop ordered hawkins be questioned. He ordered that the corpse be exhumed to determine what exactly it meant. This is pretty much all it quote what im going to read you now in the journal of governor winthrop. Many things were observable in the birth and discovery of this monster. And this is not a quote. The dires were heretics, he could tell and the midwife, hawkins quote was notorious for familiarity with the devil. Are had the women present at the birth were suddenly taken with a violent vomiting and others had their children taken with convlgzs. As the child died the bed wrn it mother lay shook violent lay. It was revealed to be a 17th century version of rosemarys baby. A say tannic mix of a woman child a beast and a foul all rolled into one and without a head. It was much corrupted yet the horns in the back. It was so monstrous and misshapen as the like has scarce been heard of. The ears were like an apess the nose was hooking upward. The breast and back were full of sharp peckals. Instead of toes it had had three claws with tallens like a young foul upon the back upon the have belly two great holes and each of them stuck out a piece of flesh. But in the place thereof above the eyes four horns, two above an inch long hard and sharp. This truly was a monstrous birth but it didnt entirely make sense because as he wrote in his journal mistress dire had been such a proper, comly woman. Then he remembered how close mary dire was with Ann Hutchinson. So close dire and her husband and children were among those who accompanied Ann Hutchinson in banishment, moving with them to rhode island. Monstrous errors like hutchinsons begot monstrous births like dires. One reason she was such a threat is she did work as a pedical practitioner. He described her as a woman helpful during times of child birth and well furnish would the means for these purposes whom readily insinuated herself into the efections of many. So her medical skills gave her too much power, hence it inhad sinuation. Her friend and mentor, the minister john cotton wrote at her first coming to boston she was well esteemed of me chiefly that iurd had she did much good in our town. Wrn she was not only skillful and helpful but readily fell into good dish course with the women about their spiritual estates. Ann hutchinson been one of cottons closest spiritual allies in england where they collaborated for nearly 20 years in the old city of boston and cotton had said very high praise she had had more people resort to her for counsel about matters of conscience and clearing up mens spiritual estates than any minister. Another source of hutchinsons authority in early boston was her remarkable maternal skill, having married William Hutchinson at 21 she proceeded to bear 15 healthy if fnts. Her first born came in 1613, susan in 1614, richard in 1616. Faith in 1617. Bridget in 1619, frances in 1620, elizabeth in 1622, william in 1623, samuel in 1624, ann in 1626, mary in 1628, catherine in 1630 and im getting tired just listing these kids. There was a second william because it first had had died in 1631 and a second susan for the same reason. Hutchinson lost two daughters to the plague in lincolnshire. And here in their new home gave burths to a new boy named zurial. A year later she was 26 years old and pregnant for the 16th time. In the course of that pregnancy, Ann Hutchinson inhad dured two public trials, spent a winter apart from her family under arrest. Banished and excommunicated and she walked the 60 miles from south of boston to rhode island in the snow. There in exile appeared to be what appeared to be a monstrous birth. It was actually a lateterm miscarriage known as a molar pregnancy or a a well recognized gynecological condition now remieved soon after detection so it doesnt become cancerous. But then it was a wonderous sign of hutchinsons inherent evil. More divine proof she had been justly expelled. Reports of her abnormal birth came to boston courtesy of a young rhode island minister who saw her when she nearly died from blood loss. Her mole is the first hide tid form mole in the medical literature because she was so famous it was reported on and has been identified as the fist written about by doctors. When the reverend john cotton heard of her unnatural birth, he made use of it in public at the next lecture day choosing this medical matter, which to us seems looik an intensely private thing as his text to preach on. It was, he told his congregation a likely sign of mistress hutchinsons error in heresy. Her miscarriage became the talk of boston. Winthrop wrote to the minister in rhode island to request a fuller account of hutchinsons monstrous birth and he recorded what he heard quote mistress hutchinson being big with child and growing towards the time of her labor brought forth not one as mistress dire did but what was more strange to amazement 30 monstrous births. Some bigger, some lesser, some of one shape, some of another. None of all of them as far as i could ever learn of human shape. These things are so strange that im almost loathe to be it reporter of them. But see how the wisdom of god fitted this judgment to her sin every way. For look as she had vented misshapen opinions so she must bring forth deformed monsters and as there were about 30 opinions in number the ministers gathered, so many monsters. And as those were public and not in a corner mentioned, so this is now come to be known and famous over all these churches and a great part of the world. So you see in 17th century boston, the contents of a womans uterus were the subject of political debate. They were signs of gods intervention in the world. Exposing peoples sins. Womens bodies were subjects for men to preach about and pick apart for their religious and social meaning. Were there other uses of womens bodies in the puratins mind . Yes, reeproduction. Once that earthly function was fulfilled, however, women became irrelevant. In contrast to men whose bodies were believed to be resurrected as bodies after death. And there was quite a bit of debate about exactly which male organ from where of the stomach, where they were resurrected or not, they took this extremely seriously. The reverend cotton explained they assume a heavenly body in which from which they can see and hear and float along side angels who are also male. In pureten theology, heaven is an entirely masculine place, which strangely leads me to a hopeful final note arising from the salem witch craft crisis of 1692 in which massachusetts murdered 27 innocent people. That crisis surprisingly had some positive outcomes. Including the creation of the First Independent judiciary in the western hemisphere. The Supreme Judicial Court of massachusetts which was created as a direct result to trials. The notion of an independent judiciary was created as well as that was t last witch craft execution on this continent. Another positive outcome of the witch hunt was a change of heart within one of the nine judges. Sammal sual. Ninetyfour years after four years after it trial, he stood up in his church, bostons third to acknowledge his personal shame and blame for having killed innocent people. The fact of suals repentance is well known as is the fact he was the author of the first antislavery tract in American History which he published in 1700 when one in five baus ownians owned slaves. Less well known is what sual did nearly 30 years later as an old man when he considered the possibility that women are equal to men. It was the summer of 1724 when the retired judge was spending long hours at the bed side of his oldest daughter, hannah while waiting on my dear child in her last sickness as he put it. Did all he could to help his dying daughter sitting with her had, praying and singing songs. When she fell asleep, he read. One of the books he read that summer was published in london in 1711. Was a sort of book you keep in your guest bathroom. It contained 2000 answers to curious questions in most arts and sciences, approved of by many of the most learned and ingenious of both cambridge and oxford and the royal society. Things you might wonder about with the correct answers. He read some of the british apallo allowed to his had daughter but on page 200 he came to a question that seemed unsuitable for sharing with her had. The question was is there now or will there be at the resurrection any females in heaven . This was a relevant question according to the text since there seems to be no need of them there. And the british apollos reply was since sexes are corporal distinctions t follows there can be not any distinction of sex in hev hadden, our rising bodies will not be distinguished if to sexes. In resurrection the dead are as the angels of god, male. This thats a quote, troubled samuel sual. Since there seems to be no need of them there, it was especially irritating. He said there will be no needless impertinant things or persons in heaven because its a roomy, magnificent palace with the most rich and splendid entertainments. So many of the women he loved wer dead he felt sure that god is their father and therefore heaven is their country. He could see no convincing evidence that womens bodies are less likely to be resurrected than mens. Although this was the teaching of his church. So the 72yearold judge took up an old diary and common place book and he began to address the issue of quote whether the bodies of women deceased shall be again raised up and remain in their own sex closed quote. He titled his work an aeramaic expression that means maiden arise. Using the Research Methods hed acquired in the 167 7070s he s his thesis. Quote he who if had stuted both sexes will restore both in heaven. Is there no need for a dotter to go and see her father when he sends for her . Is there no need for her to see god who though he may be a great king is a most loving and tender hearted father . Need is not relevant. God has no need of any creature. Agusts provided plane, undeniable truth. And noting the beautiful variety with which god had been pleased to adorn his works, he wrote its past dispute that mary shall enjoy her own body and john shall enjoy his or perhaps in the resurrected world hillary shall enjoy her own body and donald or berock or george shall enjoy his. Then, samuel sul invoked the concept of the right of women which was a remarkable thing two centuries before women could vote. Quote if any kauncontroversy be inhi injurious to women, in my opinion they are of quick understanding, they have no needs to be afraid of lacking rights. None of his early descendants saw fit to safe a copy of the printed version. So most assumed this late essay on gender equality was never b published. In january 1625 sual recorded that he paid two pounds to the printer bar thaul mew green for printing and folding three half sheets. So it was published but no one else commented on it and no copy of the 24page is known to survive in the world. But at the Massachusetts Historical Society you can find the draft of it in his original diary, the version that he would have handed to the printer bar thaul mew green. J the text is also included at the back of my biography, salem witch judge so you can see for yourself how a salem witch judge transformed himself into an early proponent of equal rights for women. Taking one small step in the long battle over womens bodies. Thank you very much. [ applause ] should i just take questions . Okay. Any questions . Comments . Theres somebody right here. Thank you. Hi. I appreciated your talk and i was wondering. I noticed that the only mention of, brief mention perhaps of women of color at all was slavery in a tract written later in the 1700s. When were talking about women as midwives and birth and womens power in colonial new england, is it possible to refrain the conversation to include the fact that were primarily talking about white women of a certain class and ability and what would it look like if we were to include the stories of women of color brought against their will who were owned by other people who also experienced birth, pregnancy, and children with disabilities being born. Thank you. I dont think we have to reframe it. We have the records that we have and most of the records are the journals of well educated wealthy men and we have court documents. We have very few records of women of any color and one of the funny things that happened when i wrote my book about Ann Hutchinson, because shes a celebrated woman people have heard of her although they dont really know who she is. Not outside the northeast. But they always said oh, right, isnt that poet . And theres one other named puritin woman in 100 years and her name was Ann Bradstreet and people think theyre one. Theres really only room for one woman in this entire century because we just dont think it women were important. So we have portraits and jirnls of the very privileged men. We dont have portraits of any of the women and if you get down to the slaves, there are no records. Most of the people there are no records of. And so you look. You delve into these mens journals just to find facts about ordinary peoples lives. But you cant the documents have to be there or the remains of the privies that people left that we have in the 17th century, you have to get some data and lacking the data we dont have more information about a whole lot of women in this period. So but it certainly doesnt have to be reframed. It is the case. There is very little known, certainly about poorer people, male and female and there arent paper records of a lot of these lives at the time. Thank you. Thank you. Im speaking as a white person. So i want to acknowledge that your labor is fantastic. But you are speaking as a white woman and as white scholars who are feminists often and youre clearly a white feminist, we do tend to frame things from that white feminist lens and so when i say reframe i mean acknowledge the lens that were speaking from. There is a whole world of people that there documented that are being completely ignored. So when your say this is the experience of women in colonial new england, im asking as white feminists to say can we reframe that and acknowledge that that is not the experience of women of colonial new england, it is the experience of a precious few women in colonial new england and that there is an entire world that is very well documented and so far primarily ignored by white feminist scholars but theres lots of great black feminist scholarship we could be working to center as white feminist scholars. It population of new england was probably more than 50 native americans. And there are many scholars study that. Its not my area of expertise and so im not commenting on that. Ive studied these lives of specific people and tried to dig into the relatively minimal documentation of even wealthy peoples lives and i but i absolutely. All of these stories need to be told. I completely agree. Anymore questions. It microphone goes to you. Or comments. Thank you. Ive been a home birth midwife for over 22 years. Over 2,000 births since the beginning of my training and unfofrp if thely not a whole lot has changed. I have 10 female colleagues in jail having attended births at home where something didnt go well and when something doesnt go well in the hospital its an act of god and everybody did what they could. So lot of things havent changed just yet. Thank you for the comment. I do research on early modern scottish and scottish highland culture and have looked at women there a lot. I am had starting to wonder if the scottish midwives also were the people responsible for handling the dead bodies when people died. I got some evidence they were it ones who laid out it corpses and handled them. I was wondering if theres any evidence that midwives in early colonial new england or later were responsible for the body of people at it end of their lives as well as at the beginning. What do you mean responsible for the body . Handtling the body, preparing the body after death. In scotlands case, cleaning it, wrapping it in winding sheet, laying it out. I actually dont know. Im sorry. I dont know a whole lot about midwifery either. My subject is more the political function of this job. But so i cant address that. Im sorry. Thank you. I know a couple of births you mentioned, the descriptions are so completely wild. I was just wondering how they can even piece together what may have been wrong with this infant considering the wildly inaccurate descriptions that seem to be going around at the time. I think the notions that the baby was an sefallic is if you take away the talons and the horns and scales and the really crazy embellishments, the way the head is sort of shrunken and lacking. I think doctors have written about it. Its sort of like Ann Hutchinsons mole got in the literature because people said gee, thats what that was based on this description and it should never have been carried to term. But its the same with the dire baby. Doctors have looked at it and said thats most likely what it was. Hi. So i heard you mention a lot about the salem witch trials and ive been personally researching it for a while and i was just curious because a lot of it was women accusing other women what you think that has tado why you think would it be a sense of power over other women that would cause them to accuse other people . I know a lot of it i dont know. Youre asking why women would accuse other women of being witches . Kind of the thought process behind the witch trials in general, especially when it comes to young girls accusing older women. What would be the thought process in your mienld having researched this time period . I think young grls might always have things they didnt like about older women and complain about them. But in that instance there was a social and political and economic crisis and the court was convened to basically find an explanation for why the devil taken over new england. And this was sort of a hysteria that spread. But there were charges of witch craft are it time. Its just that the state, the men, the nine judges of the court decided to take very seriously these charges and hang anyone who did not confess that they were allied with the devil. Most people in that situation would confess to save their life. More than 100 people did. And the 20 people who died, for were 14 women and six men. It 20 people who died refused to confess in alliance with the devil. Which is rather remarkable and makes them all quite heroic. It was a political and social problem. Its sort of the same with the monstrous infants. Somebody has to be blamed when something bad happens. This is a sign of something and we have to find out who the culprit is. So the witch craft trials were just a way to deflect attention from the military disasters and the political disasters and as soon as the wives of the ministers and Close Friends of the judges and wife particularly of the governor of massachusetts, the province at the the time were acused, the whole thing stopped. Lasted five months. It was the hanging to all witch crafts here. It was imported from europe. Its not like they invented it here. It was a phenomenon that had gone on for a long time. And it still goes on in certain countries today and it wasnt really a personal thing like between a few people. It was a social and political phenomenon in my opinion. I just a question about what happened to Ann Hutchinson after she was in rhode island and if things were any better in rhode island, if it was any different there. That kind of thing. So she nearly died from this abnormal pregnancy and then she there were a whole bunch of people who went with her and there was some conflict she settled in portwhich is why shes considered a co founder of rhode island thrksz colony in the state because it was a merger of providence and rhode island, which is the smaller island south of rhode island. But there was there were conflicts over who would get the newport and the greatest tragedy efor Ann Hutchinson was that her husband, William Hutchinson who been hes a wealthy tex tile merchant and had supported her through in all these journeys. She was it one who wanted to come here. He would have been happy to stay in england with all their kids. But she had to follow john cotton. So he supported and they built this Beautiful House in boston. Probably almost as nice as the governors house and then they walked to rhode island and built a more crude settlement and he died. Shes still sort of being attacked. Winthrop is seeking more information about her. He was sending missionaries down to get her to confess eval and she would spit at these boston men who came. So shes lost her great supporter. I think he was probably exhausted at this time. She then decides to move outside of English Settlement because they were still everywhere and rhode island and connecticut and massachusetts. And she moved among the dutch who were more accepting of people who are not pureten and she was welcome there and she lived in a Dutch Community there with her six or seven younger children. She now at this point, as you can imagine, many grandchildren and older chirldn are living in boston and brain tree and rhode island. So she her younger children with her and they a little farm house above the Hutchinson River can is named for her had. There are very few rivers named for women as well. So she live there had and the dutch that she was living among were having a fiveyear war the indians there and the dutch and the indians would sort of warn each other were coming through, were going to burn down your houses and they would each vacate their settlements and this was going back and forth for a long time. Well, when they warned the dutch were coming through because you killed somebody, it was just a back and forth retaliation kind of thing. All the dutch left and Ann Hutchinson didnt. Shed always been a great supporter of native americans. She caused a lot of problems because she opposed it. So he couldnt get enough young men as soldiers. She may have felt that the native americans would have recognized her and not hurt her but they came in, rushing in expecting just be to able to kill the cattle and burn down the houses and there was a european woman there with all of her children and some teen age sons and a son in law and they immediately scalp them all and put all the bodies in the house and burn the house to the ground. The chief soon realized i guess what happened when they were leaving after doing this burning down the dutch settlement, one of her daughters a 9yearold, susan, had been away picking blue buriea berriee time and heard it slaughter of most of her family. The native americans came upon this child and i guess spoke with her and they took her which was very common. Young girls or women would be taken by various native american tribes and many didnt want to come back to English Settlement after that. But they realized who her mother was and theyd heard of her and felt terrible. The chief renamed himself ann hoke after this this is what the records say. After Ann Hutchinson and Susan Hutchinson was raids raised by it native americans for four years and learned their language. Then at 18 so she lived with them for seven or eight years. Came backing to boston, married a young english men and moved to rhode island and had 15 children like her mother. Theres a nice novel written about her. It story of Susan Hutchinson. You were saying preachers were saying women would not be in heaven. Theres a first gal laotians 3 28 that say theres neither jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male for female, all one in christ. How did they manage to ignore something that seems so clear . Well, the quote that the quote from the british apollo was there shall be no distinction of sex in heaven, all the souls are as the angels. Its sort of like theres no distinction and theyre all male. I think thats how they resolved it. Angels are male. Beyond that i wasnt present when they were discussing which organ and how there was a lot of discussion of this. Thats my only guess how they resolved that problem. Hi. You had mentioned afraid i dont remember his name but the judge that was later repen tent. Judge sewell. And his manuscript he wrote and the fact not only was there no printed copy but no recording of responses. Could that be attributed to poor records and not Holding Onto Things or more likely people just completely thought it was a ridiculous idea and dismissed it . I dont think we know. But when he wrote his antislavery tract he offended a number of his neighbors, he was a wealthy man and the more wealthy you were the more likely you would have been able to have a slave. It was very common in new england to own slaves. So i think he was embarrassed at times that people sort of snubbed him because they were offended by it. It was a subject of conversation, and of interest. Now, i think its considered a very important document in the history of abolition. Why nobody saved, i cannot tell you. But it seems important he wrote it and seems important we should know this about puritans how heaven worked really talking about how they believed the world worked which was how it worked is part of our heritage as americans. Just as the Supreme Judicial Court call in out of the salem witch trials and leads to our notion of separation of powers, the judges are separate from executives and legislators, sort of fundamental to our nation came out of the salem witch trials and this notion women are not capable of doing things men can do seems fundamental to us as americans and i think you need to understand thats part of our nations history. One more question. I understand Ann Hutchinson built her house directly across the street from governor winthrop. Was there any evidence winthrop recorded it as a personal assault . I dont know if he recorded that in his diaries. After i wrote the book, Ann Hutchinsons house we have the footprint up, remarkable because it was built in 1634 out of wood. We have the footprint because it was built in 1611 and it still has some of the original bahamas. Original beams. We know winthrop was 19th century. After i published american jezebel. After the trial, i cant remember whether he lived in the house earlier or later, the house he lived in mostly was right next to where the statehouse is now, which is right on the market and the government building. I think theres a marker there. You would be able to say exactly when he moved from one house to the other. Anyway, i think at the time of her trial, he was not right across the street but right around the corner. They all lived three minutes from one house to the next, part of the peninsula. I dont i think they werent the wealthiest people. When the hutchinsons first arrived, her husband was asked to be a judge on the court. People got asked because they were the power in society. Because of how close they lived. They lived very close and he didnt want her around any longer. Excuse me. Im used to speaking to a crowd and being heard. If there are questions, our friend, eva laplant will be here. There is so much to learn about the puritan centuries and you can join us for the next several years. Plan your life this way. [ laughter ] you can certainly come to our event on friday. We have spaces on saturday. Eve laplante. There will be a service at first church, also where it is now, and there will be a service at first church on sunday. There is more. Take a look at your brochure and eve laplantes book, american jezebel is for sale outside as is our cookbook, the pleasure of the taste of the american recipes. Thank you so much. [ applause ] American History tv continues wednesday in primetime. Well look at the 70th anniversary of the hollywood block list hearings. Beginning this weekend. Visiting each state capital and hearing about each states priorities, we kicked off the tour september 18th in dover, delaware and now visited 12 state capitals. Our next stop is tallahassee, florida. Well be there live during washington journal. In 1851, new york abolitionists and myrtilla miner, opened a school for africanamerican girls. It was burnt down after an arson attack and then reopened. Finally it merged with other local institutions to form the university of the district of columbia. Next, Kimberly Bender talks about the schools history and legacy. Hi, everybody. How are you doing . How many of you have been here before. So you all kind of know the history of the heurich house museum, the home of d. C. s most successful brewer. We are not going to be talking about him today. Thats kind of unusual for us here. This is a special story for us about myrtilla miner. She opened