Yes, Dissenters Were Banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony: Roger Williams & Anne Hutchinson

Religious Orthodoxy Enforced by Exile

The statement is TRUE. The Puritan leadership of Massachusetts Bay Colony banished individuals whose theological or political views threatened the colony's unified religious order.

Roger Williams (Banished 1635)

• Challenged the colony's charter: argued the King had no right to grant Indigenous land without purchase.
• Advocated complete separation of church and state—radical for the time.
• Fled to Narragansett Bay, founded Providence Plantations (Rhode Island) on principles of religious liberty.

Anne Hutchinson (Banished 1637)

• Held unauthorized religious meetings interpreting sermons.
• Taught direct revelation (God speaks to individuals without ministerial mediation), undermining clerical authority.
• Tried for sedition and "traducing the ministers"; banished while pregnant.
• Settled in Rhode Island, later New Netherland (killed in Kieft's War, 1643).

The Pattern

Banishment was the colony's tool to maintain theocratic cohesion. Dissent wasn't just theological—it was seen as civil subversion. Rhode Island became the refuge for the exiled, establishing a lasting legacy of religious freedom.