Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-292) and index.

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. Charged with heresy and sedition, she defended herself brilliantly, but the court, faced with a perceived threat to public order, banished her for behaving in a manner "not comely for [her] sex." The seeds of the American struggle for women's and human rights can be found in her courageous story. Nathaniel Hawthorne used her as a model for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter; her detractors referred to her as "the instrument of Satan," a witch, "more bold than a man," and Jezebel--the ancient queen who, on account of her tremendous political power, was "the most evil woman" in the Bible.--From publisher description.

This RRCC title is an older hard-cover edition, inadvertently lost in AspenCat 9-27-12, added back on 10-1-12-- PCD.