Diary of Anna Green Winslow

Anna Green Winslow was born on November 29, 1759, in Nova Scotia. She was part of the prominent Winslow Family from Boston. Unable to find a proper schooling for her, Anna’s parents send the ten-year-old girl in Boston. In the period between 1771 and 1773 she sends series of letters to her mother, in which she writes about the daily life in Boston. She writes about her advances in sewing, penmanship, lace making, her daily Bible readings to her Aunt Deming, her social engagements and many other things that happened in her life.

Anna, although has been raised according to the Puritan ideology, which emphasized piety and modesty, she was just like the other teenagers, even like today’s teenager. She had a big interest in fashion and she wished to look like all the other girls she met on the streets of Boston.

She died on July 19, 1780,  in Hingham, Massachusetts, probably of tuberculosis.

Her letters are not merely letters to her mother, but have a cultural value, by reflecting the life at that time, and the way women were raised.