First Name:
Gretchen
Last Name:
Brown
Major Department:
History
Thesis Director:
Sheila Phipps
Date of Thesis:
May 2014
Puritan women in the seventeenth century were expected to lead pious, moral lives in order to guide their families in faith. This piety that was held in such high esteem by the church and pastors of the community often perpetuated specific roles women were expected to fill. Each woman who was instructed to be pious, however, interpreted this piety differently in her day to day life. In the cases of Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson the boundaries of what a woman could achieve in society were stretched in different ways. In this thesis, it will be argued that the lives of Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson helped to break through roles that women were placed in although these women sometimes had to fight against the patriarchal system in covert ways.