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 sedition and heresy. 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 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 matter "not comely for (her) sex."
Until now, Hutchinson has been a polarizing figure in American history and letters, attracting either disdain or exaltation. Hawthorne, who was haunted by the "saintly" Hutchinson, used her as a model for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Much of the praise for her, however, is muted by a wish to domesticate the heroine: the bronze statue of Hutchinson at the State House depicts a prayerful mother - eyes raised to heaven, a child at her side - rather than a woman of power standing alone before humanity and God. Her detractors, starting with her neighbor John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, referred to her as "disturber of Israel," "the instrument of Satan," the new Eve, a witch, "more bold than a man," and Jezebel - the ancient queen who, on account of her political power, was "the most evil woman" in the Bible.
Written by one of Hutchinson's direct descendents, American Jezebel brings both balance and perspective to Hutchinson's story. It captures her life in all its complexity, presenting her not as a religious fanatic or a raging crank - as some have portrayed her - but as a flesh and blood wife, mother, theologian and political leader. The book explores her early life, trial, expulsion from Massachusetts, settling in Rhode Island and her death, along with most of her children, at the hands of Indians on the north shore of Long Island.
American Jezebel illuminates the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, free speech and showcases an extraordinary woman whose achievements are astonishing by the standards of any era. This book helps us, as Baptists, to learn of and appreciate a woman to whom we owe a great debt.