Anne Newport Royall, although largely forgotten, was well known in the first half of the nineteenth century as a writer of ten volumes of travel sketches and a novel and as a "holy terror" to those who crossed her. She was indicted and convicted of being a "common scold" in the summer of 1829. She took on all whom she felt were guilty of corruption in the national capital. She was adamant against the evangelical Presbyterians, who were, she thought, engaged in a giant conspiracy to make a church-state party that would run the country. She was against the banking interests and spoke out fearlessly against all who did not represent the sovereign people. She was caustic and biting, and her works, with all their faults, resonate as the productions of an authentic female voice.

Born near Baltimore on 11 June 1769, Anne was the daughter of William and Mary Newport...