Puritans to Revolutionaries: A Note on Anne Bradstreet

Lots and lots of religion.
Of course, what else can you expect from the Puritans who came to America to escape religious persecution? Ideas of total depravity, God's grace, Providence, and the elect are prevalent throughout works by Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, Edward Taylor, and Jonathan Edwards. Among all the talk of God's glory and grace, there are a few suprising elements. My favorite of the Puritans is Anne Bradstreet who, unlike Mary Rowlandson, blends her love for God and role as a believer with insights about her role as a woman in this time period. In the prologue she defends, although humbly, her skill as a poet and right to step out of the domestic mold and define herself as an artist. I found one line particularly interesting: "Men can do best, and women know it well." I like to think that this line is somewhat akin to the reverse of modern day men telling their wives, "No, that doesn't make you look fat." Like smart boyfriends and husbands, Bradstreet is telling men what they want to hear. Given the time, however, she may be saying this in complete seriousness, and only asking that women be given at least some credit for their artistic talents. I also particularly like Bradstreet's poem to Queen Elizabeth where she acknowledges that women have the ability to become as successful leaders as men: "Millions will testify that this is true. She hath wip'd off th' aspersion of her Sex, That women wisdom lack to play the Rex." Even in "The Author to her Book," which seems typically female because of its reference to her poetry as her "offspring," it is distinct because she points out that her work/offspring has no "Father." Her work may be flawed, as she humbly admits, but by pointing out he lack of the father figure, she claims her work as hers alone without the influence of men.
Bradstreet is undoubtedly Puritan in all of her works. “The Author to her Book” shows the Puritan idea of natural depravity and human fallibility as she admits her work’s flaws. In “Upon the Burning of Our House,” she sees the burning house as Providence and praises God for his sense of justice and his power to both give and take away. Overall I was definitely taken in by the seemless combination of Bradstreet's Puritan ideals and her feminist ideals.