In this review over Anne Bradstreet’s The Worldly Puritan, the author goes briefly over Bradstreet’s life stating how she had to deal with “her drastic change from public to private poet; and her grudging resolution of a persistent inner conflict between her feelings and the imperatives of Puritan culture.” Essentially one of the first American female writers, Bradstreet kept most of her writings to herself, and it wasn’t until her brother-in-law secretly published some of her writings did she get noticed. Though not a huge proponent to the feminist cause, I feel that her writings, just by themselves opened up the door to others exploring what women could and couldn’t do.

    Sara Willis Parton (also known as Fanny Fern), was “funny, courageous, and disrespectful.” Her writings used “sentimental rhetoric subversively, to undermine and destroy sentimental values, thus forwarding a feminist agenda.” This article suggests that although Fern’s light writing style seems to promote the submissive woman, in fact if one would take a closer look they would see that the writing in fact works toward challenging the social structure and the place of women in society. Her writing called for a

“feminist revision of Calvinism for a maternal God and a feminized Christ”. She did not see God as her male clergymen saw him; she didn’t understand why people tried to scare their congregation into heaven, rather they should see the loving side of God. Her humorous outlook on certain aspects of life, her sarcasm, and her natural wit would somehow propel her to heights when other women who had tried before her had fallen. Parton would go on to have a very successful career as an author earning more than any writer of her time.

    In Cultural Reformations: Lydia Maria Child and the Literature of Reform, the author compares side by side the writings by Child with those of “outspoken abolitionists”, “thereby highlighting her restrained rhetoric as well as her meticulous attention to audience response.” Not only does the article touch on the abolition side of Child but, it “pushes the boundaries of acceptable behavior for women.” Child did not just see that the world needed to be changed; she went about reforming it herself. She was truly a visionary who “imagined a world of racial and gender equality and unity.” Child reached deep and delved into material that was overlooked “by many of her contemporaries:” that of the Native Americans and the African Americans. Her pushing of boundaries, primarily those of emancipation and women’s rights would, like her rhetoric and writing style, transcend time.