Poems by Anne Dudley Bradstreet by Anne Dudley Bradstreet

Poems by Anne Dudley Bradstreet by Anne Dudley Bradstreet

Poems by Anne Dudley Bradstreet

Reprinted in Early American Writing

Published in 1994

"We both are ignorant, yet love bids me/These farewell lines to recommend thee,/That when that knot's untied that made us one, I may seem thine, who in effect am none."

Throughout the colonial period, settlers in North America maintained close ties with their European homelands. The main connection was trade. All of the American colonies sent products such as fish, furs, lumber (wood used for buildings), tobacco (a leafy plant processed for smoking), rice, indigo (a blue dye), and livestock (animals raised for meat) to Europe. In exchange they received European-made weapons, ammunition, household items, and other necessities they could not produce themselves. The colonists also depended on Europe for news about recent world events.

Another strong link was culture. As the American colonies became more established, educated citizens increasingly relied on European books, pamphlets, and other publications. This was the only way they could stay in touch with scientific advances, political ideas, religious thought, literature, and drama. Soon colonists were thinking of themselves as members of a vast community or "Republic of Letters" that extended across the Atlantic to embrace both Europeans and Americans.

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