Phillis Wheatley

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Phillis Wheatley, as illustrated by Scipio Moorhead in the Frontispiece to her book Poems on Various Subjects.

Phillis Wheatley (1753 – December 5, 1784) was the first published African American poet and first African-American woman whose writings helped create the genre of African American literature.[1] Born in Gambia, she was made a slave at age seven. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write, and helped encourage her poetry.

The 1773 publication of Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral brought her fame, with figures such as George Washinton praising her work. Wheatley also toured England and was praised in a poem by fellow African American poet Jupiter Hammon. Wheatley was emancipated by her owners after her poetic success, but stayed with the Wheatley family until the death of her former master and the breakup of his family.[2]

Contents

[edit] Early years

Phillis Wheatley's church, Old South Meeting House

Born about 1753 in West Africa, she was kidnapped in 1761 and taken to America on a slave ship called "Phillis" (from which she took her name). She was purchased in Boston by John Wheatley, a wealthy merchant. Wheatley and his wife Susanna instructed the young girl and encouraged her education,[3] including study of Latin and history. She was tutored by the Wheatleys’ son, Nathaniel , in English, Latin, history, geography, religion, and the Bible. She was baptized a Christian at Old South Meeting House.[4]

[edit] Later years

Wheatley’s popularity as a poet both in the United States and England ultimately gained her freedom on October 18, 1773. She appeared before General George Washinton at a poetry reading in March, 1776. She was a strong supporter of American independence, reflected in both poems and plays she wrote during the Revolutionary War.

She married a free black grocer named John Peters; they had two children who died as infants. Wheatley's husband abandoned her in 1784, when she was pregnant again. She struggled to support herself and had completed a second volume of poetry, but no publisher seemed interested in it.

Phillis Wheatley died from complications of childbirth at the age of 31. Her newborn infant died several hours later.[5] By then she was living in a boarding house in poverty.

[edit] Poetry

In 1768, Wheatley wrote "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty" in which she praised George III for repealing the Stamp Act.[6] However, as the American Revolution gained strength, Wheatley's writing turned to themes from the point of view of the colonists.

John Wheatley's grave in Granary Burying Ground. Phillis Wheatley's grave is unmarked

In 1770 Wheatley wrote a poetic tribute to George Whitefield that received widespread acclaim. Wheatley's poetry overwhelmingly revolves around Christian themes, with many poems dedicated to famous personalities. Over one-third consist of elegies, the remainder being on religious, classical, and abstract themes.[7] She rarely mentions her own situation in her poems. One of the few which refers to slavery is "On being brought from Africa to America":

Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic dye."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.´

Many white Americans of the time found it hard to believe that an African woman could write poetry, and Wheatley had to defend her literary ability in court in 1772.[8][9] She was examined by a group of Boston luminaries, including John Erving, Reverend Charles Chauncey, John Hancock, Thomas Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts, and his lieutenant governor Andrew Oliver. They concluded she had written the poems ascribed to her and signed an attestation which was published in the preface to her book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral published in Aldgate, London in 1773. The book was published in London because publishers in Boston had refused to publish the text. Wheatley and her master's son, Nathanial Wheatley, went to London, where Selina, Countess of Huntingdon and the Earl of Dartmouth helped with the publication.

Through her poetry, Wheatley is credited with helping found African American literature.[10]

In 1778, African American poet Jupiter Hammon wrote an ode to Wheatley. Hammon never mentions himself in the poem, but it appears that in choosing Wheatley as a subject, he was acknowledging their common bond.

[edit] Style

Wheatley wrote in the formal poetic style that was popular in her time,[11][12] often focusing on moral and religious subjects.

[edit] Recognition and legacy

Phillis Wheatley statue on Commonwealth Ave. in Boston as part of the Boston Women's Memorial

With the 1774 publication of Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, she "became the most famous African on the face of the earth."[13] Voltaire stated in a letter to a friend that Wheatley had proved that black people could write poetry. John Paul Jones asked a fellow officer to deliver some of his personal writings to "Phillis the African favorite of the Nine (muses) and Apollo."[14] She was also honored by many of America's founding fathers, including George Washinton.

Wheatley's book is today seen as helping create the genre of African American literature.[15]

She is honored as the first African American woman to publish a book and the first to make a living from her writing.[16]

There is a building named in her honor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Phillis Wheatley on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[17]

[edit] Poems by Phillis Wheatley

  • Poems by Phillis Wheatley, "An Address to the Atheist" and "An Address to the Deist," 1767
  • "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty" 1768
  • Poem by Phillis Wheatley, "Atheism," July 1769
  • "An Elegaic Poem On the Death of that celebrated Divine, and eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned Mr. George Whitefield," 1771
  • Poem by Phillis Wheatley, "A Poem of the Death of Charles Eliot ...," 1 September 1772
  • Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (title page and frontispiece of 1773 edition)
  • Poem by Phillis Wheatley, "To His Honor the Lieutenant Governor on the death of his Lady," 24 March 1773
  • "An Elegy, To Miss Mary Moorhead, On the Death of her Father, The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead," 1773
  • "An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of the Great Divine, the Reverend and the Learned Dr. Samuel Cooper," 1784
  • "Liberty and Peace, A Poem" 1784
  • Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (title page and front matter of 1802 edition)
  • "To the Right and Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth ..." from Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1802 edition)

[edit] Books

  • Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral Published in 1773
  • Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and Slave (Boston: Published by Geo. W. Light, 1834), also by Margaretta Matilda Odell

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's second Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates, Basic Civitas Books, 2003, page 5.
  2. ^ Women's Political and Social Thought: An Anthology by Hilda L. Smith, Indiana University Press, 2000, page 123.
  3. ^ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah, Basic Civitas Books, 1999, page 1171.
  4. ^ PAL: Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784(1774-1815)
  5. ^ http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/whea-phi.htm
  6. ^ Women's Political and Social Thought: An Anthology by Hilda L. Smith, Indiana University Press, 2000, page 123.
  7. ^ Phillis Wheatley page, comments on Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, accessed Oct. 5, 2007
  8. ^ Ellis Cashmore, review of The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, Nellie Y. McKay and Henry Louis Gates, eds., New Statesman, April 25, 1997.
  9. ^ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah, Basic Civitas Books, 1999, page 1171.
  10. ^ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah, Basic Civitas Books, 1999, page 1171.
  11. ^ Women's Political and Social Thought: An Anthology by Hilda L. Smith, Indiana University Press, 2000, page 123.
  12. ^ Kathleen De Grave, Pittsburgh State University . "Phillis Wheatley." The Literary Encyclopedia. 26 Sep. 2006. The Literary Dictionary Company. 21 October 2007.
  13. ^ The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates, Basic Civitas Books, page 33.
  14. ^ The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates, Basic Civitas Books, page 33.
  15. ^ The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates, Basic Civitas Books, 2003, page 5.
  16. ^ http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/whea-phi.htm
  17. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.

[edit] Further reading

  • Gates, H. The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters With the Founding Fathers Basic Civitas Books, 2003
  • Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. "Phillis Wheatley." In Literature: The Human Experience, 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006: 1606.
  • Shockley, Ann Allen, Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide, New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books, 1989. ISBN 0-452-00981-2

[edit] External links

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