Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 to a former soldier of Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Dudley. In 1630, he sailed with his family to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America. Simon Bradstreet, 25, was also sailing on that ship and later married Anne Dudley, 16. Anne had been well tutored in literature and history in Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, as well as English. She was very well educated for a woman of that time.
Historically, Anne is primarily linked to her prominent father and husband, both governors of Massachusetts who left portraits and records. She states, "any woman who sought to use her wit, charm, or intelligence in the community at large found herself ridiculed, banished, or executed by the Colony's powerful group of male leaders." She was to be a house-wife, because that was the standards during the 1600s. Women did not go out and get an education; they stayed home with the children and took care of the house. She had to stay separated from the linked affairs of church and state, even "deriving her ideas of God from the contemplation of her husband's excellencies," according to one document.
Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be recognized as an accomplished New World Poet. Her volume of poetry "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America..." received much attention with it was first published in London in 1650. Even though she had eight children to take care of, she found time to write poetry which showed her commitment. Her work reflects the religious and emotional conflicts she experience as a woman writer and as a Puritan. Throughout her life, Bradstreet was concerned with the issues of sin and redemption, physical and emotional frailty, death and immortality. Much of her work indicates that she had a difficult time resolving the conflict between pleasures of sensory and experiences with her family and promises of Heaven. As a Puritan, she struggled to subdue her attachment to the world, but as a woman, she sometimes felt more strongly connected to her husband, children, and community than to God.