American Jezebel
The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans

In the seventeenth century, a time in American history when a woman could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, Anne Hutchinson possessed remarkable political power. Nathaniel Hawthorne used the controversial Hutchinson as a model for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, and Governor John Winthrop called her "American Jezebel." Nevertheless, the wife and mother of fifteen helped set the stage for our modern concepts of religious freedom, gender equality, and civil rights.

Eve LaPlante's engaging biography captures Hutchinson's life in all its complexity, presenting a riveting portrait of early America. American Jezebel moves from Hutchinson's dramatic courtroom battles with the leaders of Massachusetts -- who founded Harvard College explicitly to prevent her ideas from spreading -- to her banishment to Rhode Island, where she became the only woman ever to found an American colony.

Eve LaPlante, a direct descendant of Anne Hutchinson, is a writer and teacher with degrees from Princeton and Harvard. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Times, Ladies' Home Journal, and The Boston Globe Magazine among others. Her book, Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a Medical, Historical and Artistic Phenomenon, was published to critical acclaim in 1993. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and four children.

"To all those teachers around the country who have asked me: what true heroes can I tell my students about? I would reply: tell them about Anne Hutchinson. And read Eve LaPlante's biography of her to make her and her courage come alive." -- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States----Nick Gillespie, Reason Magazine