Page 92 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Read the Document Prenuptial Agreement (1653) 3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

PuriTan Marriage Puritans viewed marriage as a civil compact rather than a religious sacrament. the
families created through marriage formed both the social and economic foundation of Puritan society.

Yet most women were neither prosperous entrepreneurs nor abject slaves. Letters
indicate that men and women generally accommodated themselves to the gender roles
they thought God had ordained. One of early America’s most creative poets, Anne
Bradstreet, wrote movingly of the fulfillment she had found with her husband. In
“To my Dear and loving Husband,”* Bradstreet declared:

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lovíd by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye woman if you can. Quick Check
Although Puritan couples worried that the affection they felt for a spouse might turn What was life like for women in
their thoughts away from God’s perfect love, this was a danger they were willing to risk. seventeenth-century New England?

establishing a New social Order

During the seventeenth century, New England colonists gradually sorted them-
selves out into distinct social groupings. Persons who would never have been
“ natural rulers” in England became provincial gentry in the northern colonies.
It helped, of course, to be wealthy and educated, but these attributes alone could
not guarantee a newcomer’s acceptance into the local ruling elite, at least not

*"To My Dear and Loving Husband" Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672)
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