Did you know Anne Bradstreet...

“The finest bread hath the least bran; the purest honey the least wax; and the sincerest Christian the least self-love.” This devotional lyric was written by Anne Bradstreet, early Puritan wife, mother, and America’s first published female poet.

She was born into an upper class Puritan family that afforded her the opportunity to receive an excellent education in history, literature and language. Anne married Simon Bradstreet in 1628. Her father, Thomas Dudley, worked closely with John Winthrop to form the Massachusetts Bay Company and organize the first Great Puritan Migration to New England. In 1630 Anne sailed with Simon and her family on the Arbella to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Anne’s father and her husband served as its governor. Anne and Simon had eight children.

In the midst of her many household duties she made time to journal her thoughts in a book she always kept at hand. In it she wrote letters to herself, to her husband, to her children, or poems about her love for God and her family. Her writings show her to be a loving wife and mother. Anne also wrote poems that expressed her religious beliefs, her thoughts on life in the Colony, and her opinions about the role of women in Puritan society. A collection of her poems was published in London under the title, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, (1650).

Today Anne Bradstreet is appreciated as colonial America’s first published female poet.

                                                                                 . . . was a Congregationalist?

Historical story by: Rev. Norm Erlendson
Celebrating 400 Years of American Congregationalism

Learn more about our Congregational History at naccc.org