Carmen Ketterman
English 201
10/22/2022
Bradstreet and Whitley: Different, yet Similar
The Revolutionary and Colonial Periods were not the best of time for settlers and
Americans. Wheatley and Bradstreet were two very influential authors during this time, using
poetry as a coping mechanism to get their feelings out. Bradstreet was a colonist with her family,
in search of new horizons, while Whitley was a slave, working in terrible conditions daily.
Although Bradstreet had little rights as a woman, Whitley had none being that she was a slave.
Both had endured much more hardship than they should have, and through poetry, saw a way
out.
Phillis Wheatley was a slave of the Wheatley household. In the Revolutionary Era, slaves were
not allowed any type of education, but the Wheatley family saw “her preciousness” and taught
her how to read and write (Poetry Foundation). Although they taught her to read and write, she
still had many slave duties to attend to. In “To the University of Cambridge in New England”,
Wheatley indicated that despite this exposure, rich and unusual for an American slave, her spirit
yearned for the intellectual challenge of a more academic atmosphere (Poetry Foundation).
Wheatley wrote most of her poems about life as a slave and the true life she saw for herself. She
craved freedom at even a small dose. She was incredibly lucky though, to have been taught to
read and write as the right to education was not granted to most slaves. Although Wheatley was a
slave, she was an extremely fortunate slave. She encountered many opportunities that led her
writing to becoming famously known and studied for many years to come.
Anne Bradstreet was a godly Puritan raised in a strict Puritan family. This created lots of desire
and tension in Bradstreet's life. “Bradstreet’s epideictic poetry in praise of her parents creates an
especially clear, community-shaping explanation of the gendered performances that constitute
Puritan godliness” (The Pen of Puritan Womanhood). Bradstreet's poems were often very
personal and heartfelt about her family and her life. She is also known for referring to the biblical
word a lot in her poems. Bradstreet wrote a poem about her mother, honoring her work and
godliness as a frontier wife and mother. “Bradstreet’s mother fulfills her relational duty to her
husband and her children; as “A worthy Matron of unspotted life, / A loving Mother and obedient
wife,” she obeys her husband as she obeys God, and as “A true Instructor of her Family” she
teaches her children to obey God and father in the same way” (The Pen of Puritan Womanhood).
She also wrote a poem about her father when he passed away. In this poem, she praised his
leadership skills and how he focused on the community stability of the frontier.
Growing up in a family like Bradstreet's, helped her grow up to be a godly woman and wife.
Bradstreet's husband was an important figure in the community. “Bradstreet discusses the
importance of her husband’s physical presence to her material stability as a wife. More broadly,
Bradstreet also indicates how important the role of godly wife is to the continued stability of the
frontier community” (The Pen of Puritan Womanhood). Gathering from the readings, Bradstreet
had a strict public status to uphold for her husband.
Learning about both Bradstreet and Wheatley, we can gather different and similar views on
which they have between them. Bradstreet was a very personal writer, writing about her life
when she first settled into the frontier, losing her parents, as a wife and important public figure
for her husband. Wheatley was personal with her writings also, but mainly about slavery. She
Bibliography:
Meridith Styer (2017) The Pen of Puritan Womanhood: Anne Bradstreet’s Personal Poetry as
Catechism on Godly Womanhood, Rhetoric Review, 36:1, 15-28, DOI:
10.1080/07350198.2017.1246004
Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). Phillis Wheatley. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved October 24, 2022,
from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley
also often wrote about deaths of people she knew and people she learned about, similar to
Bradstreet. Wheatley had a way of writing that involved an art that was used to undermine the
practice of slavery (Poetry Foundation). Bradstreet used the Bible to bring a more Puritan,
Christian meaning to her poems. Although I believe Wheatley endured much more pain and
suffering than Bradstreet, I am not doubting that at times Bradstreet had it hard. I am sure it was
very hard on her having to live up to this certain standard and keep up with the lifestyle.
Both writers played a significant role in modernizing writing during that time. Their writings
were a form of communication when they did not have the opportunity to speak out and I also
believe it was therapeutic for them. A gateway to getting their feelings out. Little would they
know just how influential their writings would be even in today's time.
