Phillis Wheatley

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 female African American poet to be published in the United States. Her book Poems on Various Subjects was published in 1773, two years before the American Revolutionary War began, and is seen as one of the first examples of African American literature.

Early years

Born in what is the modern day Senegal which was Gambia, Africa, Wheatley was captured by Africans, named for the slave ship the Phillis, and sold into slavery at the age of 7. She was brought to Boston, Massachusetts on July 11, 1761, where John Wheatley purchased her and where she adopted the Christian faith. John Wheatley was a prominent Boston merchant with a wholesale business, real estate, warehouses, wharfage, and the Schooner London Packet. Susannah Wheatley was an ardent Christian and admirer of George Whitefield. Phillis was a frail child between seven and eight years of age and was chosen to be a domestic servant and companion to Mrs. Wheatley in her later years.

Wheatley's master and his family both instructed and encouraged her education, including study of foreign languages such as Latin, and history. Phillis Wheatley was tutored by the Wheatley’s daughter, Mary, in English, Latin, history, geography, religion, and the Bible.

Later years

Phillis’ popularity as a poet both in the United States and England ultimately brought her freedom from slavery on October 18, 1773. She even appeared before General Washington in March, 1776 for her poetry and was a strong supporter of independence during the Revolutionary War.

After the death of the Wheatley family, Wheatley married a free black grocer named John Peters. This marriage produced three children, two of which soon died. Her husband soon left her and Wheatley earned a living as a servant. By 1784 she was living in a boardinghouse and, in December of that year, she and her remaining child died and were buried in an unmarked grave. She died in poverty at the age of 31. Wheatley's third child died only a few hours after her death. At the time of her death, there was a second volume of poetry but neither it nor any other works of hers have ever been seen.

Poetry

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. 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.´

Because many white people of the time found it hard to believe that a black woman could be so intelligent as to write poetry, in 1772 Wheatley had to defend her literary ability in court. 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 that she had in fact 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.

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.

Recognition and legacy

With the 1774 publication of Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, she "became the most famous African on the face of the earth, the Oprah Winfrey of her time." Voltaire wrote 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 person writings to "Phillis the African favorite of the Nine (muses) and Apollo." She was also honored by many of America's founding fathers, including George Washington.

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

Poems by Phillis Wheatley

• Poems by Phillis Wheatley, "An Address to the Atheist" and "An Address to the Deist," 1767
• Poem by Phillis Wheatley, "Athiesim," July 1769
• "An Elegiac 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
• 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)

Writings

• An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of the Great Divine, the Reverend and Learned Dr. Samuel Cooper, Who Departed This Life December 29, 1783
• Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and Slave (Boston: Published by Geo. W. Light, 1834), also by Margaretta Matilda Odell
• Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral Published in 1773
• To His Excellency George Washington written for Washington in 1776

See also

• Slave narrative
• African American literature
• Jupiter Hammon

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. "Phyllis 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

External links

• Works by Phillis Wheatley at Project Gutenberg
• Phillis Wheatley at the Open Directory Project
• JMU site with her poems
• Jupiter Hammon's Poem to Phillis Wheatley
• Power Writers
• A Geo-Biography of Phillis Wheatley on Google Earth
• Phillis Wheatley: Precursor of American Abolitionism
• Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet of Colonial America: a story of her life
• Phyllis Wheatley
• The African American Registry
• Phillis Wheatley
• History in Woman - Phillis Wheatley
• Poems on Various Subjects Full-text searchable online at University of South Carolina libraries