Packard, Elizabeth Parson Wares. The Prisoner’s Hidden Life, or, Insane Asylums Unveiled. Chicago: A.B. Case, 1868. Packard was committed for three years by her husband because she disagreed with his religious beliefs. Her children sued to have her released and she won the case. This is her description of her experiences and the trial. Available online from UIllinois.

Packard, Elizabeth Parson Wares. Modern Persecution, or Insane Asylums Unveiled. Hartford, CN: Caise, Lockwood, and Brainerd, 1873. This is the more personal discussion of her story, what it meant to her and to her family, how she was treated in the asylum, the results of her exoneration for insanity, and her fight to make marital commitment against the law. It is available online from Google Books.

John Winthrop’s Journal entry of 13 April 1645 describes a woman’s mental instability as coming from her husband’s allowing her to read and write books.

Mr. Hopkins…brought his wife with him, (a godly young woman, and of special parts,) who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books…

[I]f she had attended her household affairs, and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are stronger, etc., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them…[2:225]