Anne Bradstreet was one of the first female writers in America. Nineteenth century ideals kept women out of the world of literature. Humility was required in the Elizabethan and Renaissance styles of poetry which Anne Bradstreet attempted to follow in her earlier years before paving a new path in American literature.  Since she was a woman she knew that men would accuse her of copying someone else's work, specifically a man's. She expressed this fear in her work. Often women were forced to write in a masculine tone in order for their work to be accepted which only worsened the idea that women could not write as themselves but only from a man's point of view.

"The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America" was a collection of works by Anne Bradstreet but was published by her brother-in-law without her knowledge. He was the one who gave the collection this title which was an intensely unconventional claim for a female writer in the nineteenth century. The previous article discusses the necessity of a woman's humility in her work. However, her brother-in-law did not understand this social and literary constraint.

The second edition of Anne Bradstreet's collection of literary works was published without the "Tenth Muse..." part of the title. The verbage of the title page of her collection is a sign of the times. It refers to Bradstreet as a "Gentlewoman" which one could consider a justification for her writing. An observer might also notice that her name is nowhere to be found on the title page, only referring to her in the aforementioned vague term.

Mary Rowlandson was another female writer in the nineteenth century who suffered the same prejudices as Anne Bradstreet. However, in her case she justified her writing by religion. In her captivity narrative she tells her distressing tale of imprisonment, heartbreak, and trials. She copes with her circumstances by turning to God to guide her through it all. The preface of the narrative is believed to have been written by Increase Mather who was a significant religious leader of the time. In this preface he defends Rowlandson's writing by expressing that even though she is a woman she is writing to share her experiences of the power of God. He also refers to her as a "gentlewoman" which this article attributes to the fact that she was married to the town's minister and her father was the wealthiest man in town. This is contradictory to the previous explanation of the word as used with Anne Bradstreet. This article claims that Rowlandson believed that she was entitled to have her work published even in such oppressive times in female literature.

This article briefly discusses Rowlandson's breakthrough as a female author in New England. She was the first to do such a thing and was only allowed to have her captivity narrative published because many men had come before her and paved the way in that style of writing. The article asserts that Rowlandson "clothed herself in male authority" reiterating the idea that women had to mask themselves in masculinity in order to write and be published. However, Rowlandson also portrayed herself as the "weeping" and "suffering" mother, adding a certain femininity to her text. She begins to pull away from those constraints that held back female writers of the day.

Mary Rowlandson's captivity narritive is a very violent, depressing tale in which the content itself is somewhat masculine. For this reason, she was able to get away with adding to it her feminine touch in the form of religion. Since women were considered the moral center of the household, Rowlandson includes personal religious encounters in a masculine story. In this way she leads the way for other women to be able to express feminine ideas in literature where previously they were held back.