Anne Bradstreet: One of the earliest feminists

I noticed a recurring theme in Bradstreet's writing. A lot of her poems touch on the idea of sexism. In pre-colonial times, most of the world was quite sexist; believing that women were inferior. But there were many women, like Bradstreet, who were educated and powerful. In the prologue to her book she speaks on the attitudes of men towards women: "For such despite they cast on female wits: / If what I do prove well, it won't advance, / They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance." (lines 28 - 30). She talks about how if she were to do something great then men would discredit it, insisting she cheated or was lucky. But during this time there was a woman of great power and wisdom for women to look up to: Queen Elizabeth. Bradstreet wrote lots of kind words about her Queen. She even went so far as to say "...thou wert a fleshly Diety:" (line 8, the proem). Here she compares the Queen to a God. "The Poem" goes on to talk about the greatness of Queen Elizabeth. Bradstreet writes about her wisdom, power, love by her people, and good she did for England. She writes about her military victories and goes on to ask "Was ever people better rul'd than hers?" (line 41). She frequently ties in this theme of sexism in her poems about Elizabeth. In "The Poem" she writes "She hath wip'd off th' aspersion of her sex, / That women wisdom lack to play the rex." (lines 29 - 30). Reading Bradstreet you can really tell how strong her love and admiration was for the Queen. Bradstreet also writes about being a wife and a daughter and more importantly; a mother. She wrote several pieces on her children, from a poem on their birth to a letter to her children to her grandchildren. Elizabeth Bradstreet was a wise woman and a great writer and quite possibly one of the earliest pre-colonial feminist minds.