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

By Eve LaPlante

In 1637, Anne Hutchinson, a forty-six-year-old midwife who was pregnant with her sixteenth child, stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts General Court, charged with heresy and sedition. In a time when women could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, the charismatic Hutchinson wielded remarkable political power. Her unconventional ideas had attracted a following of prominent citizens eager for social reform. Hutchinson defended herself brilliantly, but the judges, faced with a perceived threat to public order, banished her for behaving in a manner "not comely for [her] sex."

Written by one of Hutchinson's direct descendants, American Jezebel brings both balance and perspective to Hutchinson's story. It captures this American heroine's life in all its complexity, presenting her not as a religious fanatic, a cardboard feminist, or a raging crank—as some have portrayed her—but as a flesh-and-blood wife, mother, theologian, and political leader. The book narrates her dramatic expulsion from Massachusetts, after which her judges, still threatened by her challenges, promptly built Harvard College to enforce religious and social orthodoxies—making her the mid-wife to the nation's first college. In exile, she settled Rhode Island, becoming the only woman ever to co-found an American colony.

The seeds of the American struggle for women's and human rights can be found in the story of this one woman's courageous life. American Jezebel illuminates the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech, and showcases an extraordinary woman whose achievements are astonishing by the standards of any era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9780061926952

Eve LaPlante

Eve LaPlante is a great niece and a first cousin of Abigail and Louisa May Alcott. She is the author of Seized, American Jezebel, and Salem Witch Judge, which won the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. She is also the editor of My Heart Is Boundless the first collection of Abigail May Alcott’s private papers. She lives with her family in New England.

Reviews for American Jezebel

[juva_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating biography of Anne Hutchinson, one of the earliest English immigrants to America whose legacy has had a great impact on the foundation of America. Her descendants have gone on to be governors, ministers and presidents. More than than, Anne's life and her persecution by the church of Boston helped to form the foundational American value of religious freedom. Although the Puritans fled England seeking a place where they could worship in peace, they did not extend this same freedom to those who differed with them. Indeed, many men where disenfranchise, disarmed, and banished from the town of Boston because of their beliefs which the ruling church considered to be heresy. Anne was not the first to be prosecuted for her opinions, but she was the first woman and her refusal to recant or submit to the will of powerful men would set a radical example.I found the complexities of the Puritan's religious opinions obscure and hard to fathom. It's bizarre in the modern age to contemplate the extreme responses to very very abstract ideas of moral or doctrinal questions. For this reason, some of the transcripts of the trial were a bit tedious. However, it is important because these are the only records that still exist of Ms. Hutchinson's thoughts and beliefs. Overall, I found the book worthwhile and the execution is thorough and passionate and written by a direct descendant of the great lady.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Read for R/L B/C. Although I did learn something it was full of boring repetitiveness throughout. I doubt that I even want to sit through the B/C meeting. Might go just for the coffee. ;-)American Jezebel; interesting topic but written quite redundantly about Anne Hutchinson, New England's foremother and Harvard's midwife. I don't know about others, but I was very bored by 1/3 of the way through the book. Puritan New England, not told in the best manner. A 1 1/2 star read for me and I really can't recommend it.

[cmbohn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Themes: gender roles, religion, separation of church and state, individual freedom versus communitySetting: Massachusetts 1638 or soAnne Hutchinson was a terrible threat to the Puritan fathers of Boston. She discussed scriptures. And she was a woman. That's really about it. She also didn't agree with them, but I think even if she had, the idea that a woman was perfectly capable of reading, writing, reasoning, and preaching was going to make them very uncomfortable, no matter what else she did.This is a biography of Hutchinson and a story of the time and place she lived in. It includes a bit about the religious controversies involved and talks a lot about the other players in the case. She was eventually brought to trial, more than once, and charged with “traducing the ministers.” John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, conducted the trial himself and made it his mission to get her punished for her behavior. He won, eventually, and Hutchinson and her family were forced to move to Rhode Island and then to Long Island where Hutchinson died.Hutchinson is an interesting subject, but something about this book just couldn't hold my interest. At one point I skipped ahead 100 pages and I really hadn't missed anything. I didn't enjoy this book very much. But I won't anti-recommend this book, if you know what I mean, because I think for the right reader, this would be a good book. Just not for me. 2 stars

[newsieq · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book discussion in my readers' group. The line-by-line transcript of her trial got a bit dull at times.

[karenmerguerian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anne Hutchinson was alternately respected and feared by the people and clergy of the 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. In this book, author (and Hutchinson descendent) Eve Laplante convincingly demonstrates that Hutchinson's intelligence and defiance of the clergy was brave and admirable. Though it led to her exile it never led to her marginalization. Laplante is less successful in demonstrating that Hutchinson's persecution had to do specifically with her gender. Hutchinson in fact was exonerated for teaching women in her home, which she successfully argued was allowed by scripture. However, she doomed herself to exile by announcing that she received direct revelation from God, and that the clergy were wrongly preaching a covenant of works. In this she was like Roger Williams, and though he was a man, their punishment --exile-- was the same. John Cotton is portrayed here as a slippery betrayer of Hutchinson, his one-time prodigy, and Winthrop as a vengeful pragmatist. The author discusses Hutchinson's continuing legacy (always a problematic issue when it comes to the Puritans), and closes by reviewing her own exploration of sites around New England and New York that are connected to Hutchinson's life.

[arelenriel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Colonial New England history has always fascinated me. I grew up in Massachusetts where so much of Anne Hutchinson's story occurred. This is a wonderful book. It is well researched a presents a balanced picture of how women were perceived and treated in 17th century American.