Elizabeth Packard was a social reformer who was inspired to campaign for stronger legal protections for people with mental illnesses and improved rights for married women after being confined in a mental institution. She authored a variety of articles and lobbied lawmakers almost from coast to coast to advocate for stricter commitment laws, protections for asylum patients' rights, and legislation that gives married women equal rights in matters of child custody, property, and earnings. Packard launched a crusade to preserve the rights of mentally ill people and married women after successfully proving that she was sane during her trial in 1864. She brought her husband's hospitalization to the public's attention in order to prevent the abuse and neglect of other vulnerable persons in the eyes of the law. Packard's story shows how dissonant currents in American culture led to a clash between the freethinking Packard, her Calvinist husband, her asylum doctor, and America's fledgling psychiatric profession