Civil Liberties

This week in class we looked over the examination of Anne Hutchinson during her court trial in Newton, MA in 1637. We were asked as a class to determine if civil liberty issues were brought up in the trial. My group discovered that Anne was denied the freedom of speech and the right to peaceable assemble. In the trial, Anne was charged with maintaining, “a meeting and an assembly in your house that hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing not tolerable.” (Page 35 in manuscript). She was denied the freedom of speech and assemble because she gathered men in her house and held prayer and bible group meetings. Anne was not the only person to be denied civil liberties. In Arthur Miller’s book, The Crucible, the girls were caught dancing in the forest at nighttime and were all condemned for witchcraft and conjuring of the devil. These girls were left without their rights to freedom of expression. Although in Anne’s case she was exiled whereas in the dancing girls were given a chance to confess and face jail time or be hanged. I think that they shouldn’t have had their civil liberties taken away. The right to freedom of speech, assemble and expression are very important and they shouldn’t have been denied those rights. What do you think?