RUNNING HEAD: THE AGE OF REASON/REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 1
Lindsey Importico
ENGL201 – American Literature I
Professor Yaw Adu-Gyamfi
February 13th, 2023
The Age of Reason/Revolutionary Period – APA style
RUNNING HEAD: THE AGE OF REASON/REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 2
The Enlightenment, or “The Age of Reason”, was an important part of the intellectual
movement in Europe that occurred during the 17th to 19th centuries. It was a time of awakening
in Europe on topics of science, during this time a shift from spiritual interest occurred and a
desire to expand scientific knowledge was at the forefront. Independent thoughts were
embraced, and the mind was open to new values. These advanced ideals found their way to the
literary world as well and brought American writers such as Phillis Wheatly. Wheatly can easily
be compared to Anne Bradstreet, who wrote during colonial times, due to their upbringings and
their motivations for writing.
To begin, we must know who each of these women is. Anne Bradstreet was born to a
rich family in England who cared for her needs. She was well-educated for a woman in that time
period and learned that she enjoyed writing poetry at a young age. She first wrote a poem for her
father called “The Four Elements”, which was made into a manuscript that gave her notoriety in
the literature world. Bradstreet questioned the existence of God; her questioning included the
validity of the Bible as well. Though she was Puritan born, she tried to search for proof that God
actually existed. As her religious beliefs were different from her Puritan upbringing, so did her
writings. For example, her poem to her husband, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, did not fit
the Puritan writing style. Due to her rebellious attitude, she became an outcast, one of her
famous quote’s states “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue who says my hand a needle better
fits.” (Bradstreet & Hensley, 2010). Despite this, she continued to strive to let people know that
they did not have to believe in things blindly and that it was not necessary to conform to a
religious group.
Phillis Wheatly’s upbringing was much different from Anne Bradstreet’s. Wheatly was
born in poverty and was sold as a slave at the young age of eight and began her life with no
RUNNING HEAD: THE AGE OF REASON/REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 3
rights and no hope. The family who took her in had empathy for her and provided her with an
education so that she could learn to read and write. She was also required to be trained in
religion, and this shows in Wheatly’s future writings. She wrote poetry about religion, and she
very clearly believed that there was a God. She first became published with her writings in
“Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” which was very well received in the world of
literature. Along with her religious writings, she also used her talent to fight against slavery, it
was her mission to prove that no one race was better than another. Writing this she knew that
slavery was bad, but that America was not and she was able to separate the two and write about
slavery as a human problem. Wheatly was progressive as well in the face that in her poem “To
My Dear and Loving Husband” she wrote about her love for his husband confidently and in a
way that was untraditional for the time period.
These two women were similar in many ways, they both were educated women in a time
when that was a rarity. Both of the women decided to stray away from the typical structure of
American writing and were taken to the poetry writing style and they found popularity in writing
about religion and the people that they admired. The women also both were two of the first three
women to ever be published in America. Bradstreet and Wheatly also had many differences,
Bradstreet was born wealthy and Wheatly had a very difficult upbringing which created a woman
who decided to fight against inequality. They also differ in their religious beliefs, as one was a
Puritan and the other a Christian. Through their writings, we can see the differences between the
Colonial Period and The Age of Reason. Overall, both Wheatly and Bradstreet strove to find
ways of survival in the New World by writing down their thoughts about the society in which
they lived.
RUNNING HEAD: THE AGE OF REASON/REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 4
In conclusion, the Age of Reason brought a whole new way of thinking about how we
tolerate injustice as well as the role of the government. Literary works that showed independent
thought were embraced and creators were no longer bound by churches or governments in regard
to their research. The Age of Reason was a turning point in history and can be reflected in the
works of authors like Phillis Wheatly and comparisons can be made to colonial writers as well.
RUNNING HEAD: THE AGE OF REASON/REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 5
References
Bradstreet, A., & Hensley, J. (2010). The works of Anne Bradstreet. The Belknap Press
Of Harvard University Press.
Manuel, J. (2020, December 16). A Guide to The Enlightenment Literature.
EnglishPost.org. https://englishpost.org/literary-movements-the-enlightment/
Winkler, E. (2020, July 30). How Phillis Wheatley Was Recovered Through History. The
New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-phillis-
wheatley-was-recovered-through-history
