She was the sixth child born to Margareta Van Wyck and Brandt Schuyler, successful merchants and members of the American Dutch aristocracy.

[2] As a child, Ann Schuyler was known for her precocious writing ability, and was often asked to recite her poems, which ranged from sentimental or humorous to sophisticated or satirical.

The TenEycks were also part of the Dutch elite, so Ann Schuyler's childhood seemed to be filled with security, abundance and happiness.

[4] John gave up the practice of law and took up agriculture in 1771, when they moved to his pastoral country estate in Tomhannock, eighteen miles (29 km) north of Albany, in the Schaghticoke region which was settled by Dutch families.

The Gazette was composed entirely of her political essays, poems, and short stories, produced for the sole purpose of sharing entertainment and news with friends and relatives.

[3] An excerpt of a poem she wrote, Written in the retreat from Burgoyne, describing how she felt about her daughters death: After Burgoyne's surrender on October 17, 1777 (part of the aftermath of the Saratoga Campaign), Ann Bleecker, her daughter and sister (all that remained of the family), and possibly a slave child[8] returned to Tomhannock.

On hearing in 1781 that her husband had been captured by Loyalist forces[6] or possibly "a band of wandering British soldiers", she suffered a miscarriage[3] and nervous breakdown.

[2][9] Bleecker did not write for posterity; she wrote letters to her friends and relatives which contained poems and short stories, which were later collected and published by her daughter.

[11] She edited her mother's writings and added some of her own poems and essays to a collection entitled The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker; she included thirty-six poems, twenty-three letters, an unfinished short historical novel, The History of Henry and Ann, and The History of Maria Kittle, a captivity narrative set during the French and Indian War.

Maria Kittle has many features typical of the Indian Captivity story; there are many graphic scenes of violence, and it describes Native Americans as terrible savages who cruelly kill babies and women, and tells the story of Maria's journey as a captive.

These poems, written in the pastoral tradition, conveyed both the beauty of the colonial New York countryside and the horrific impact of war, suffering, death, and destruction.

[12] Because Bleecker was writing from the interesting perspective of a terrified young mother, her articulate depictions of the Revolutionary War are still read by historians today.