author
E. P. W. (Elizabeth Parsons Ware) Packard
1816–1897
Known for turning a deeply personal injustice into public reform, she became one of the 19th century's most determined voices for the rights of married women and people confined in asylums. Her life story is dramatic, unsettling, and surprisingly modern in its fight over freedom, belief, and legal power.
1 Audiobook
Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity
by E. P. W. (Elizabeth Parsons Ware) Packard
About the author
Born in Ware, Massachusetts, in 1816, Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard became a reformer after a harrowing experience changed the course of her life. In 1860, her husband had her committed to the Illinois state asylum, where she was held for more than three years after he claimed she was insane.
After winning her release and publicly defending her sanity, she began writing and campaigning against laws that allowed husbands and authorities to confine women so easily. She went on to speak and lobby widely for stronger legal protections for married women and for people accused of mental illness.
Packard is remembered not only as an activist but also as a prolific author who used her own story to push for change. Her work helped draw attention to abuses in asylum systems and to the lack of legal rights many women faced in the 19th century.