What happens when you don't agree with those who defined the "common" in the Puritan idea of the common good? Watch this thought-provoking, engaging and deeply informed panel discussion with author Eve LaPlante, public historian Marc Kohler, and scholar and author Peter Mancall as they examine the lives and fates (yes, manacles, banishment, and exile to England) of Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Thomas Morton.
The Puritans knit their community together in ways that were both deeply spiritual and immensely practical. They prayed together, worked together, cared for each other in sickness and childbirth. What happened to people who defied that community spirit – the rebels and radicals who found other ways? In this challenging panel discussion, award-winning author Eve LaPlante, historian Peter Mancall, and Marc Kohler of the Roger Williams Foundation explored the limits of the Puritan common good.
Meet the panel
Marc Kohler is a storyteller who for 25 years ran the non-profit Puppet Workshop. In 2017 he began to read about Roger Williams and, convinced that Williams’ remarkable story should be more widely known, established the Roger Williams Educational Foundation. He speaks and writes about Williams’ commitment to freedom of religion and friendship with the Narragansett people, and of his legacy today.
Eve LaPlante is the author of five nonfiction books including American Jezebel, a biography of Anne Hutchinson, and Salem Witch Judge, winner of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction for her intimate and powerful portrayal of Samuel Sewall, the judge who became an abolitionist and feminist. LaPlante’s latest biography, Marmee & Louisa, paints a vivid portrait of Louisa May Alcott’s relationship with her mother, Abigail. Described as “superbly crafted,” it was named a top ten book of the year by NPR. Eve is an adviser to the Partnership of Historic Bostons.
Peter C. Mancall, Mellon professor of the humanities and a professor of history and anthropology at the University of Southern California, is the author of seven books, including his most recent, The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England. He is currently finishing volume one of the Oxford History of the United States.