Bradstreet, Sargent Murray, and Wheatley

I am inclined to believe that Anna Bradstreet was a firm believer of her Puritan traditions. Some of her poems reflect her beliefs. Most likely she believed that a woman’s place was at home attending to her husband and children. In short, she believed that the role of the women was domestic. The Puritan doctrine and the society of her time reinforced this belief. Women were considered inferior and did
not have the same rights as men did.

Given these facts, it is an irony that Bradstreet was well educated and wrote poetry. This seems contrary to the domestic role of women.

What was Bradstreet purpose in writing poetry? Did she have a point to make like Judith Sargent Murray?

In a sense, Bradstreet was reinforcing her religious and social beliefs when she wrote in reference to religion, her husband, children and grandchildren. Her writing is clearly reinforcing the women’s domestic role. I can see how this influenced the women who read her poetry.

However, I firmly believe that the purpose for writings was also to challenge the mindset of the men who thought that women were inferior to them. She is without a doubt breaking the social status quo of her time. It is clearly that she was not a feminist, but her writings advocate respect and dignity for women. Her poem “In Honor of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory” praises women. Bradstreet advocated for women’s rights in a very subtle way.

I read that in Bradstreet’s Puritan culture, the love between husband and wife was supposed to be slightly repressed, so not to distract one from the devotion to God. Yet she publically expressed her love for her husband in the poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” This poem challenged the Puritan ideas.

Unlike Bradstreet Judith Sargent Murray was very outspoken about women’s writers. She was not subtle but bold for her times. She was an early advocate of women’s progress. I would say that she was one of the earliest American feminist. Her poem, “On the Equality of the Sexes” was a probably shocking to the clergy men. I believe that her poem is still relevant today.

Phillis Wheatley, early American poet and African American slave, is a great example of Sargent Murray’s arguments. Bradstreet, Sargent Murray, and Wheatley are three extra ordinary women in our history. Unfortunately, they are not as well known as some of their contemporary men.