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Diary of Anna Green Winslow: A Boston School Girl of 1771
Excerpt from Diary of Anna Green Winslow
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books.
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. This text has been digitally restored from a historical edition. Some errors may persist, however we consider it worth publishing due to the work's historical value.
The digital edition of all books may be viewed on our website before purchase.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books.
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. This text has been digitally restored from a historical edition. Some errors may persist, however we consider it worth publishing due to the work's historical value.
The digital edition of all books may be viewed on our website before purchase.
165 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1771
18 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Anna Green Winslow
2 booksAnna Green Winslow (29 November 1759 – 19 July 1780), a member of the prominent Winslow family of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, was a girl who wrote a series of letters to her mother between 1771 and 1773 that portray the daily life of the gentry in Boston at the first stirrings of the American Revolution.
She made copies of the letters into an eight-by-six-and-a-half-inch book in order to improve her penmanship, making the accounts a sort of diary as well. This diary, edited by 19th-century American historian and author Alice Morse Earle, was published in 1894 under the title Diary of Anna Green Winslow, A Boston School Girl of 1771, and has never gone out of print. The diary provides a rare window into the life of an affluent teenage girl in colonial Boston. While making some changes for contemporary readers, Earle kept the original fanciful spelling and capitalization.
She made copies of the letters into an eight-by-six-and-a-half-inch book in order to improve her penmanship, making the accounts a sort of diary as well. This diary, edited by 19th-century American historian and author Alice Morse Earle, was published in 1894 under the title Diary of Anna Green Winslow, A Boston School Girl of 1771, and has never gone out of print. The diary provides a rare window into the life of an affluent teenage girl in colonial Boston. While making some changes for contemporary readers, Earle kept the original fanciful spelling and capitalization.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 6, 2019
Щоденник дівчинки 18 століття - насправді це не зовсім щоденник, а підбірка листів, які вона писала з Бостона мамі у Нову Скотію.
Життя пуританського підлітка 18 століття вписується в декілька повторюваних занять - відвідування церкви, чаювання в гостях родичів і знайомих, школа і купівля одягу. Якщо не зважати на дивну граматику, то вийде досить сучасна картина, не рахуючи більшої кількості похоронів і хворіб.
Має сподобатися всім, кого цікавить історія повсякдення.
Життя пуританського підлітка 18 століття вписується в декілька повторюваних занять - відвідування церкви, чаювання в гостях родичів і знайомих, школа і купівля одягу. Якщо не зважати на дивну граматику, то вийде досить сучасна картина, не рахуючи більшої кількості похоронів і хворіб.
Має сподобатися всім, кого цікавить історія повсякдення.
February 22, 2025
Anna Green Winslow is just a girl!!! All she wants is for her dad to read her letters, her mom to not send her ugly clothes, and to go to church!!! My girl’s got that religious zeal fr (but is also a little antisemitic yikes)
Anyways, read this for a primary source for my senior thesis. Very applicable to my research, big win!
Anyways, read this for a primary source for my senior thesis. Very applicable to my research, big win!
March 25, 2018
The compiled letters of a young girl sent to Boston for ‘finishing’, during the unfolding Revolution. Penned in her own hand, the customs, vernacular and daily tasks described are, to me, surprisingly foreign, for being the roots of our current society. In contrast, her candor, wit and occasional snark make this volume shockingly relatable. I was utterly transported, to my great surprise. As I am in the midst of studying my own family’s roots, back to this and older eras, it was gratifying to learn more about the places and events which my ancestors experienced, in a very first-hand way. A quick read which I recommend to every American interested in their own roots.
Read the appendices first, unless you are more familiar than I with 18th Century Colonial American terminology and customs... Also, the wikipedia on Anna Green Winslow is informative. Several,of her relatives had their portraits painted by John Singleton Copley, easily found on Pinterest: https://pin.it/ejpa72vt7glwat
[Note: I found this for free, see GUTENBERG: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20765]
(It isn’t really a Kindle book, I just loaded into my Kindle app for reading.)
Read the appendices first, unless you are more familiar than I with 18th Century Colonial American terminology and customs... Also, the wikipedia on Anna Green Winslow is informative. Several,of her relatives had their portraits painted by John Singleton Copley, easily found on Pinterest: https://pin.it/ejpa72vt7glwat
[Note: I found this for free, see GUTENBERG: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20765]
(It isn’t really a Kindle book, I just loaded into my Kindle app for reading.)
January 27, 2022
This book was interesting in that it showed the life of a young girl in colonial times. The problem was in the spelling and the amount of footnotes that you had to go back and forth with (They were not at the end of the page but at the end of the book), after the 10th one I just left the footnotes to read at the end. There was a lot of information and I believe that people who are interested in this time period can get a lot of good primary source information from this book but overall it was just not what I wanted.
November 18, 2021
Interesting giving an idea for a young girl in 18th century Boston. However sometimes a little difficult to follow the relationships etc. Also personally I find it difficult to relate to religious zeal.
July 11, 2022
It's amazing how being an eleven year old girl is pretty much timeless. Away at school in Boston while her parents are up in Canada, Anna complains that her mother sent her clothes that NO ONE in Boston wears, and essentially tells her the 18th century version of "Mom, you're making me look like a total dork!!"
I really enjoyed such personal insight into 18th century adolescence, and Anna's direct words put 1770s Boston through a lens I've never encountered anywhere else.
I really enjoyed such personal insight into 18th century adolescence, and Anna's direct words put 1770s Boston through a lens I've never encountered anywhere else.
December 13, 2015
Anna Green Winslow wrote this journal when she was 12. She had been sent from Nova Scotia where her father was stationed in the British military to Boston when she was 10 to stay with her aunt Sarah Deming to attend school. She went to a writing school and a sewing school to 'finish' and expand her education. The diary is typical of a 12 year old in its portrayal of fashion and gossip, but is also very serious in its reporting of births and deaths, the amount of work she performed daily, the obligations of visiting and reporting of sermons and her interpretation of them, and finally the hints of revolutionary activities occurring in Boston from a Tory perspective.
I picked this up after reading Mayflower by Philbrick and realizing that this was a direct heir of the original Pilgrims. Mary Chilton was the first to step foot on land in the New World and she married John Winslow who arrived on the Fortune, the second ship to arrive the next year. This journal was a means of practicing her writing and was meant to be given to her family as an account of her activities; separate from letters that she regularly exchanged with her family.
It was passed down through the family and eventually published in 1894. The editor, Anna's relation, though not direct, wrote the forward and the extensive notes on all the people mentioned. Anna unfortunately died unmarried at 20 of consumption. The notes and introduction are as interesting as the diary in the amount of history that was known and preserved.
I picked this up after reading Mayflower by Philbrick and realizing that this was a direct heir of the original Pilgrims. Mary Chilton was the first to step foot on land in the New World and she married John Winslow who arrived on the Fortune, the second ship to arrive the next year. This journal was a means of practicing her writing and was meant to be given to her family as an account of her activities; separate from letters that she regularly exchanged with her family.
It was passed down through the family and eventually published in 1894. The editor, Anna's relation, though not direct, wrote the forward and the extensive notes on all the people mentioned. Anna unfortunately died unmarried at 20 of consumption. The notes and introduction are as interesting as the diary in the amount of history that was known and preserved.
February 1, 2016
This is partly a diary of a girl of ten who was sent to school in Boston, and partly footnotes, which take up about 39% of the book.
The girl only lived to be nineteen, dying in 1779. She was extremely religious, a dutiful daughter, and undertook the normal activities of a girl of her times. She did a lot of sewing, cooking, and visiting her relatives. She also spent a lot of time at church, and much of her diary consists of quotes from sermons or from the Bible.
She also writes about the weather (at one time there was six or seven feet of snow where she lived), various illnesses, accidents and deaths of people she knew, and common everyday things like that.
She was also strongly anti-Jewish, blaming them specifically for the crucifixion of Jesus.
It's kind of an interesting book but the diary part ends far too abruptly and there are too many footnotes.
The girl only lived to be nineteen, dying in 1779. She was extremely religious, a dutiful daughter, and undertook the normal activities of a girl of her times. She did a lot of sewing, cooking, and visiting her relatives. She also spent a lot of time at church, and much of her diary consists of quotes from sermons or from the Bible.
She also writes about the weather (at one time there was six or seven feet of snow where she lived), various illnesses, accidents and deaths of people she knew, and common everyday things like that.
She was also strongly anti-Jewish, blaming them specifically for the crucifixion of Jesus.
It's kind of an interesting book but the diary part ends far too abruptly and there are too many footnotes.
June 26, 2012
Eleven-year-old Anna Green Winslow, from the prominent Winslow family of Massachusetts, was dispatched from Nova Scotia to Boston to be "finished" in 1771. Soon after her arrival and through the spring of 1773, Anna kept a diary of her daily life, advances in sewing and writing and dancing, and social engagements. It's not scintillating, but it is a nice look at the everyday life of a young girl at the birth of the American Revolution. You will learn a lot about the lives of the 18th century well-bred women. Parts of it are unintentionally funny as the Puritan Anna, despite the religious imprecations to modesty, is just as fashion-conscious as any modern teenager.
At barely more than 100 pages, Diary of Anna Green Winslow, A Boston School Girl of 1771 is definitely worth a read.
At barely more than 100 pages, Diary of Anna Green Winslow, A Boston School Girl of 1771 is definitely worth a read.
February 28, 2014
A very quick read and very interesting. At times it was a bit stale, Anna's diary which meant everything to her is a bit lacking at times for the reader probably because the people who were important for her mean nothing to us. A great inside look to what was important to this 11 year old New England girl. The Religion, politics and socializing that went on for the times. I did also very much enjoy the old English wording and writing although sometimes I did have up fall back on context clues. All around a good read
January 22, 2016
I would suggest reading this after visiting the Freedom Trail in Boston so you get a sense of the places and events Anna talks about. It really enriched her diary for me. I can see how coming into reading this without actually being there and being too interested in daily life at the time would make her diary seem trivial and boring.
Also you'll be helping keep the exhibits open if you buy it from the gift shop. ;)
Also you'll be helping keep the exhibits open if you buy it from the gift shop. ;)
October 12, 2010
This is a must read book it is really cute and awesome really I just cant fors you guys but tri it like it take it no no like it leave it alone on the shelf someone else mite tack it it mite be me and my name is Dana and I am sending this from my iPod touch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)
July 12, 2016
Written in 1771, first published in 1894 and reprinted in 1974, this book is understandable to the modern reader, but certainly not easy to read. It does give us a glimpse of what life was like for this young girl, just before the American Revolution. Unfortunately, the diary just ends on May 31.
September 21, 2008
it is a young girl's diary of her life. So it is about this person did that and that person was here. Yet the life of the times is better learned.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews