Portsmouth Free Public Library and the Portsmouth Historical Society will host a book club discussion of “American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Women Who Defied the Puritans,” by Eve LaPlante.

Anne Hutchinson, a forty-six-year-old midwife pregnant with her sixteenth child, stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts 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.” Exiled from Boston Colony, she settled in Rhode Island with many of her followers, who founded the town of Portsmouth in 1638, establishing a “Bodie Politick” based on religious freedom. The book 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. 

This will be the first of a series of Portsmouth Free Public Library book club discussions on books about local history selected by the Portsmouth Historical Society. Copies of this title will be available for checkout at the library.  This event is free and open to the public. Please sign up by clicking on the REGISTER button or calling the library at 683-9457.