Anne Bradstreet and Her Time

reat house" at Andover, making his appearance in 1652, when life had settled into the ro

especial benefit. Simon was then six years old, quite ready for Latin grammar and other responsibilities of life, and according to the Puritan standard, an accountable being from whom too much trifling could by no means be allowed, and who undoubtedly had a careful eye to the small Hannah, aged four, also old enough to knit a stocking and sew a seam, and read her chapter in the Bible with the best. Dorothy and Sarah could take even more active part, yet even the mature ages of eight and ten did not hinder surreptitious tumbles into heaped up feather beds, and a scurry through many a once forbidden corner of the Ipswich home. For them there was small ha

six years at Andover. When five had passed out into the world and homes of their own, she wrote, in 1656, half regretfully, yet triumphant

birds hatch

ere were, and

m up with p

or labour d

last they fe

rees, and lea

Brood then to

far, and le

l chirps I

eturn, or

y nest, thy

sing amidst

ird did tak

mate flew o

both their co

wain they the

blown by So

steer'd with

bird was no

beach amon

hird of co

lac'd no sm

h mate lovi

bid her

Aurora fir

percht, to sp

the Aca

ong that l

ves still i

ht chant ab

r more than

ngales he m

se down is ye

e shrubs and

ings increas

ghs he'l pear

ree, still

r grown, the

re, they'l tak

'd, so shall

d weep, then

know what a

rood some harm

riz'd for w

ng corn, and

'wares in Fo

trees they

rd boy at t

lur'd with b

pread, and c

Lime-twigs t

greedy hawk

young, ye sa

thoughts the

y pain when

y care when

keep you so

wings kept o

more, and fea

h now, as 'fo

rds, you wi

you are

grass, on tre

ents on yo

safety ha

ay you liv

dayes in tun

layes with

ods I'll si

at past, to m

nd pleasant,

boyes (no j

ill not on

y time so n

top bough t

untry bey

es, instantl

ith Seraphi

old, nor sto

g lasts t

f you shall

oung ones ta

language, of

am that lov

t could be d

u up till yo

e once would

you joy a

as good, and

e life, and wh

amongst you

t speak, and

birds, far

m, if wel

B

ate of Joseph Osgood, the most influential citizen after Mr. Bradstreet, shows that only bare necessities had gone with him. His oxen and cattle and the grain stored in his barn are given first, with

bed and

eing half feath

bed & fu

of sheets &

e li

re of pil

o pieces

tongs, cottre

s & a fowl

tlass & b

trays, cheese-mo

St

, cords &

and w

shape of family portraits, and plate, china or heavily carved mahogany or oak furniture. For the poorer houses, only panes of oiled paper admitted the light, and this want of sunshine was one cause of the terrible loss of life in fevers and various epidemics from which the first se

y never since equalled, and more and more departed from as the years go on. But all investigation of early records shows

have passed out of the hands of women, the girls who once shared in the labor, and helped to make up the patriarchal households of early times, have followed, preferring the monotonous and wearing routine of mill-life, to the

Brenton who wanted help." This word "help" applied itself to such cases, distinguishing them from those of the ordinary servant, and girls of the good families put themselves under notable housekeepers to learn the secrets of the profession-a form of cooking and household economy school, that we sigh for vainly to-day. The Bradstreets took their servants from Ipswich, but others in the new town were reduced to sore straits, in some cases being forced to depend on the Indian woman, who, fresh from the wigwam, looked in amazement on the superfluities of civilized life. Hugh Peters, the dogmatic and most unpleasant minister of Salem, wrote to a Boston friend: "Sir, Mr Endecott & myself salute you in the Lord Jesus, &c. Wee have heard of a dividence of woman & children in the bay & would be glad of a share, viz: a

in us, having power in our hands, to suffer them to maynteyne the worship of the devill which their paw-wawes often doe; 2 lie, If upon a just warre the Lord should deliver them into our hands, wee might easily have men, woemen and children enough to exchange for Moores, which wilbe more gaynefull pillage for us than wee conceive, for I do not see how we can thrive unti

to the modern mind. But, while slaves increased English servants became harder and harder to secure, and often revolted from the masters to whom their time had been sold. There is a certain relish in W

h they might have waded out on either side, but it was an evident judgement of God upon them, for they were wicked persons. One of them, a little before, being reproved for his lewdness, and put in mind of hell, answered that if hell were ten times h

d less demoralizing than the whiskey of to-day. There is a record of the death in 1683, of Jack, a negro servant of Captain Dudley Bradstreet's, who lost also, in 1693, by drowning, "Stacy, ye servant of Major Dudley Bradstreet, a mullatoe born in his house." Mistress Bradstreet had several, whose families grew up about her, their concerns being of quite as deep interest as those of her neighbo

a negrow garl named Dinah about five years of age of a Healthy sound Constution, free from any Disease of Body and do he

RT B

1656, had learned to prefer independence, the Rev. Zechariah Symmes writing feelingly: "Much ado I have with my own family, hard to get a servant glad of ca

dish from impending ruin, and the offence had been condoned or allowed to pass unnoticed. But the "young brood" revolted altogether at tim

and whipping-post awaited all offenders, who still found that the secret pleasure outweighed the public pain, and were brought up again and again, till years subdued the fleshly instincts, and they in turn wondered at their children's pertinacity in the same evil ways. Holidays were no part of the Puritan system, and the litt

reams have imagined anything so fascinating as the Kindergarten or primary school of to-day. Horn books were still in use and with reason, the often- flagellated little Puritans giving much time to tears, which would have utterly destroyed anything less enduring than horn. Until 1647, the teaching of all younger children had been done chiefly at home, and Anne Bradstreet's

children as shall resort to him, to read and write." The district school-house waited till Indian raids had ceased to be dreaded, but though the walk to the small, square building which in due time was set in some piece

he morning sunlight flicker. Even when this stage passed, and the "great house" received them, there was still the same need for rushing down to the fire in kitchen or living-roo

on, usually in one of two forms of porridge, which for the first hundred and fifty years was the Puritan breakfast. Boiled milk, lightly thickened with Indian meal, and for the elders made more desirable by "a goode piece of butter," was the first, while for winter use, beans or peas were used, a small piece of

ve of good cheer was still strong, and Johnson wrote in his "Wonder-Working Providence": "Apples, pears and quince tarts, instead of their former pumpkin- pies. Poul

otash", a fascinating combination of young beans and green corn. Codfish made Saturday as sacred as Friday had once been, and baked beans on Sunday morning became an equally inflexible law. Every family brewed its own beer, and when the orchards had grown, made its own cider. Wine and spirits were imported, but rum was made at home, and in the early records of Andover, the town distiller has honorable men

nd this obliged the affluence of napkins, which appears in early inventories. The children ate from wooden bowls and trenchers, and their elders from pewter. Governor Bradford owned "fourteen dishes of that material, thirteen platters, three large and two small plates, a candlestick and a bottle," and many hours were spent in polishing the rather refractory m

der the portion only of the nineteenth century. But there is nothing more certain than that, in spite of creeds, human nature remains much the same, and that the Puritan matron fretted as energetically again

d servant John-whose surname, if he ever had one, is lost to this generation, and who succeeded in hiding his evil doings so thoroughly, that there

mpt as shall be brought against him, for stealing severall things, as pigges, capons, mault, bacon, b

em with Goodman Russ, who had no scruples. The "mayde had missed the things" and confided her trouble to Goodwife Russ, who had gone up to the great house, and who, pitying the girl, knowing that "her mistress would blame her and be very angry," brought them all back, and then told her husband and John what she had done. Another comrade made full confession, testifying in court that at one time they killed and roasted a "great fatt pigg" in the lot, giving what remained "to the dogges," John seasoning the repast with stories of former thefts. It wa

ning, of which Hannah Barnard "did testifye that being in my father's lott near Mr. Bradstreet's barn,

e had killed, and heard him call to Sam Martin to come; but when he saw that John Bra

ealing was added offences much more malicious, several discreet Puritan lads, sons of the foremost land holders having been induced by sudden temptation, to join him in running Mr. Bradstreet's wheels down hill into a swamp, while at

nd his appearance before the Court being certain in any town to which he went. No other servant seems to have given s

o Divine

o state

no he

no qu

age no

no grie

no se

no ill o

o comp

o bad

o long

no w

ready money in England; oil, wine, &c., and cheese, in regard of the hazard of bringing, &c., excepted. The evils which were springing, &c., were: 1. Many spent much time idly, &c., because they could get as much in four days as would keep them a week. 2. They spent much in tobacco and strong waters, &c., which was a great waste to the Commonwealth, which by reason of so many commodities expended, could not have subsisted to this time, but that it was supplied by the cattle and corn which were sold to new comers at very dear rates." This bit of extortion on the part of the Colony as a government, does not seem to weigh on Winthrop's mind with by any means as great force as that of the defeated workmen, and he gives the colonial tariff of prices with even a certain pride: "Corn at six shillings the bushel, a cow at L20-yea, some at L24, some L26-a mare at L35, an ewe goat at

to-day, was the property of all alike, and usually of solid oak. A grade above this, came another form, with turned and applied ornaments and two drawers at the bottom, a fine specimen of which is still in the old Phillips house at North Andover, opposite the Bradstreet house. The last variety had more drawers, but still retained the lid on top, which being finally permanently fastened down, made the modern bureau. High-ba

nto melted tallow till they be as big and round as an egg. This thing thus prepared is laid by some

of teeth." It was not at all out of character to look on complacently while dogs worried an unhappy wolf, the same Josselyn writing of one taken in a trap: "A great m

oad of cods-heads on the other side of a paled fence when the moon shines, and about nine or ten of the clock, the foxes come to it; sometimes two or three or half a doze

ing at no time much more than paths marked by the blazing of trees and the clearing away of timber and undergrowth. There were no bridges save over the narrower streams, fording being the custom, till ferries were established at various points. Roads and town boundaries were alike undetermined and shifting. "Pream

en our towne, but now we begine to think we have-this therefore are to desier you to send some men to meet with ours upon the third Munday of ye next month by nine a'clo

meeting-house, the seats were all examined and ranked according to their desirability, this process being called, "dignifying the pews." All who held the highest social or ecclesiastical positions were then placed; and the rest as seemed good, the men on one side, the women on another, and the children, often

meeting-house," and the committee chosen found it so disagreeable a task that Dudley Bradstreet, when in

stocks, and when the boys were massed in the galleries the tithing man had active occupation during the entire service, and could have had small benefit of the means of grace. Two were necessary at last,

ess of ye Sabbath, both in y time of exercise, at noon time, to ye great dishonor of God, scandall of religion, & ye grief of many serious Christians, by young p

or a wrestle on the meeting- house steps. Even their lawlessness held more circumspectness than is known to the most decorous boy of to-day, and it gained with every generation, till neither tithing-men nor constables had further power to restrain it, the Puritans of the eighteenth century wailing over the godlessness and degeneracy of the age as strenuously as

king a great dinner or supper, the abundant good cheer of which was their strongest reminder of England. The early privations were ended, but to recall them

water and salt boiled together who could wish better. It was not accounted a strange thing in those days to drink water, and to eat samp or hominy wit

Even in the first years, while pressure was still upon t

g pudding, made with currants and raisins, sometimes drinked potta

ancestors men and women of a soundness and vigor long since lost, there is every proof that the standard of health has progressed with all other standards, and that the best bl

tsoever I have eaten, . . . He hath made my coming to be a method to cure me of

melancholy case, but he was able after a

of a most healing nature to all such as are of a co

ant sermon and prayers of doubled length, found this only an added element of enjoyment. Judge Sewall's diary records many good dinners; sometimes as "a sumptuous feast," sometimes as merely "a fine dinner," but always with impressive un

any hints that Mistress Bradstreet provided good cheer with a freedom born of her early training, and made stronger by her husband's tastes and wishes. The Andover dames patterned after her, and spent many of the long hours, in as cl