... be the first established female writer, Bradstreet is also recognized as America's first poet. Her writing reflects the constant struggles that she had to endure as a Puritan woman in the seventeenth century, as well as her love and devotion to her husband and children. There are two different sides to Bradstreet, one being formal and the other, more personal. She is also ... as one of the most enigmatic figures in literature. She touched on many subjects from religion to love and wrote both lyrically and logically. A fellow poet and Puritan from the seventeenth century is Edward Taylor...

• Word Count: 1254
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... insignificant young women were able to exert life and death power over the entire community." (Woloch, 30) John Demos a New England witchcraft historian writes "a hidden theme of the lives of seventeenth-century women seems to reveal an intense hostility of younger women toward the power and control of older women. It has also been suggested, middle-aged women often slightly deviant, may ... the community. The Salem witch trials were also used to keep women oppressed. Why were women (and especially women over the age of 40) signaled out and punished disproportionately in seventeenth-cen...

• Word Count: 1873
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... at the age of ten to fourteen and lasted about seven years. Some young boys were lucky enough to attend college. About half of the Harvard College graduates in the seventeenth century chose to become ministers. Puritans often attached a religious significance to the boy's choice of career. They referred to the choice as a "calling." This was a philosophy, which meant that god had ... ...

• Word Count: 1790
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... began acting weird, Reverend Parris brought in Dr. William Griggs who could not diagnose a medical condition for the girls, so he suggested bewitchment. This made sense back then because the seventeenth century Puritans believed in witchcraft as a cause of sickness and death. Since witches were believed to have gained their power from the Devil it was decided to find the witches responsible ... ...

• Word Count: 1280
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School