Anne Hutchinson was an English woman who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and challenged the Puritan religious teachings. She was a religious dissenter who held meetings in her home to discuss theology, which challenged the religious leaders of the time. As a result, she was tried and convicted of heresy in 1637 and banished from the colony. She helped establish the colony of Rhode Island, where she supported the idea of religious freedom that became important in the English colonies in America.