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Phillis Wheatley

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Phillis wheatley portrait 2

Phillis Wheatley. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Phillis Wheatley (?1753 - December 5, 1784) was the earliest African-American poet to publish a book of poetry, and the earliest African-American woman whose writings were published.[1]

Life[]

Overview[]

Born in Gambia, Senegal, she was made a slave at age 7. 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 Washington praising her work. Wheatley also visited England for 5 weeks accompanying her master's son, and was praised in a poem by fellow African American poet Jupiter Hammon. Wheatley was emancipated by her owners after both her poetic success,[2] and the death of her master, and she soon married. However, when her husband was imprisoned for debt in 1784, Wheatley fell into poverty and died of illness.

Youth[]

File:Old South Meetinghouse BW.jpg

Phillis Wheatley's church, Old South Meeting House

Although the date and location of her birthplace is not perfectly documented, it is believed that Phillis Wheatley was born in 1753, somewhere in West Africa, most likely somewhere in present-day Gambia.[3] Wheatley was brought to Boston, Massachusetts on July 11, 1761,[4] on a slave ship called the Phillis,[5] owned by Timothy Finch and captained by Peter Gwinn.

At the age of 8, she was sold to wealthy Bostonian merchant and tailor John Wheatley, who bought the young girl as a servant for his wife, Susanna. John and Susanna Wheatley named the young girl Phillis, after the ship that had brought her to America.

Phillis began her education being tutored by the Wheatley’s 18-year-old daughter, Mary. John Wheatley, known as a progressive throughout New England, and the rest of the Wheatley family’s open-mindedness allowed Phillis to receive an unprecedented education for not only an enslaved person, but for a female of any race. By the age of 12, Phillis was already reading Greek and Latin classics and difficult passages from the Bible. Amazed by her literary ability, the Wheatley family made Phillis’ education an important concern, and left the household labor to the other enslaved persons that the family owned. Influenced heavily by the works of Alexander Pope, John Milton, Homer, Horace and Virgil, Phillis Wheatley’s studies began to gravitate toward the realm of poetry.

Later life[]

In 1770 Wheatley wrote a poetic tribute to George Whitefield that received widespread acclaim. 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.[6][7] She was examined by a group of Boston luminaries, including John Erving, Rev. 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.

In 1773, Wheatley and her master's son, Nathaniel Wheatley, went to London, where Selina, Countess of Huntingdon and the Earl of Dartmouth helped prepare her poems for publication. She held an audience with the Lord Mayor of London (a further audience with George III was arranged but Phillis returned home beforehand) as well as with other significant members of British society. Her poetry collection, Poems on Various Subjects was published in Aldgate, London, during this visit. The book was published in London because publishers in Boston had refused to publish the text. . Wheatley was emancipated from slavery, but not given the full rights of a free woman, on October 18, 1773.

In 1775, she published a poem celebrating George Washington entitled, “To His Excellency George Washington.” In 1776, Washington invited Wheatley to his home as thanks for the poem and Thomas Paine republished the poem in the Pennsylvania Gazette as a result of Wheatley’s audience with Washington. Whilst Wheatley was a supporter of the American Revolution, the war proved to be detrimental to the publication of her poetry because readers were swept up in the frenzy of the war and seemingly disinterested in poetry.

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

In 1778, Wheatley was legally freed from the bonds of slavery when her master John Wheatley died. 3 months later, Wheatley married John Peters, a free black grocer. Her marriage was shaky as a result of poor living conditions and the death of 2 infant children. Wheatley was unable to publish another volume of her poetry because of her financial circumstances, the loss of patrons after her emancipation, and the impact of the Revolutionary War.

Wheatley’s husband, John Peters, was imprisoned for debt in 1784, leaving an impoverished Wheatley behind with a sickly infant son. Wheatley became a scullery maid at a boarding house, forced into domestic labor that she had avoided earlier in life while enslaved. Wheatley died alone on December 5, 1784, at age 31. Her infant son died less than 4 hours after her death.

Writing[]

Phillis_Wheatley_-_Poetry

Phillis Wheatley - Poetry

In 1768, Wheatley wrote "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty" in which she praised George III for repealing the Stamp Act.[2] However, as the American Revolution gained strength, Wheatley's writing turned to themes from the point of view of the colonists.

Wheatley's poetry overwhelmingly revolves around Christian themes, with many poems dedicated to famous personalities. Over 1/3 consist of elegies, the remainder being on religious, classical, and abstract themes.[8] 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.´

Wheatley's book is today seen as helping create the genre of African American literature.[1]

Style, Structure, and Influences[]

Wheatley believed that the power of poetry is immeasurable.[9] John C. Shields notes that her poetry did not simply reflect the literature that she read but was based on her personal ideas and beliefs. Shields writes, "Wheatley had more in mind than simple conformity. It will be shown later that her allusions to the sun god and to the goddess of the morn, always appearing as they do here in close association with her quest for poetic inspiration, are of central importance to her." This poem is arranged into three stanzas of four lines in iambic tetrameter followed by a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ababcc.[9][10] She used three primary elements: Christianity, classicism, and hierophantic solar worship.[11] The hierophantic solar worship is what she brought with her from Africa; the worship of sun gods is expressed as part of her African culture. As her parents were sun worshipers, it may be why she used so many different words for the sun. For instance, she uses Aurora eight times, "Apollo seven, Phoebus twelve, and Sol twice."[11] Shields believes that the word "light" is significant to her as it marks her African history, a past that she has left physically behind.[11]

He notes that Sun is a homonym for Son, and that Wheatley intended a double reference to Christ.[11] Wheatley also refers to "heav'nly muse" in two of her poems: "To a Clergy Man on the Death of his Lady" and "Isaiah LXIII," signifying her idea of the Christian deity.[12]

Shields believes that her use of classicism set her work apart from that of her contemporaries. He writes, "Wheatley's use of classicism distinguishes her work as original and unique and deserves extended treatment."[13] Shields sums up Wheatley's writing by characterizing it as "contemplative and reflective rather than brilliant and shimmering."[10]

Recognition[]

With the 1774 publication of Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, she "became the most famous African on the face of the earth."[14] 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 Washington.

She is honored as the earliest African American woman to publish a book and the earliest to make a living from her writing.[15]

In 1920 the new YWCA building in Lexington, Kentucky was dedicated as the "Phyllis Wheatley Branch." Now adapted as an apartment building, it still stands at the corner of Upper and Fourth streets. The cornerstone identifying it as the Phyllis Wheatley Branch is visible on the front.

Buildings have also been named for her at the University of Massachusetts Boston and at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Wheatley on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[16]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • An Elegiac Poem: On the death of that celebrated divine, and eminent servant of Jesus Christ, the reverend and learned George Whitefield ... Boston: Printed & sold by Ezekiel Russell & by John Boyles, 1770;
    • republished in Heaven the Residence of Saints, by Ebenezer Pemberton. London: Printed for E. & C. Dilly, 1771.
  • Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and moral; by Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley of Boston. London: Printed for Archibald Bell & sold in Boston by Cox & Berry, 1773; Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, 1786.
  • An Elegy: Sacred to the memory of that great divine, the reverend and learned Dr. Samuel Cooper. Boston: Printed & sold by E. Russell, 1784.
  • Liberty and Peace, A Poem. Boston: Printed by Warden & Russell, 1784.

Collected editions[]

  • Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and Slave. Boston: Geo. W. Light, Margaretta Matilda Odell, 1834.[17]
  • Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley. Containing Her complete Poetical Works, Numerous Letters and a complete Biography of This Famous Poet of a Century and a Half Ago (edited by G. Herbert Renfro) Washington, DC: A. Jenkins, 1916.
  • The Poems of Phillis Wheatley, Edited with an Introduction and Notes (edited by Charlotte Ruth Wright). Philadelphia: The Wrights, 1930.
  • The Poems of Phillis Wheatley (edited by Julian D. Mason, Jr.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966.

Letters[]

  • Letters of Phillis Wheatley, the Negro-Slave Poet of Boston (edited by Charles Deane). Boston: privately printed, 1864.
  •  The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis: 1800-1860 (edited by Carter G. Woodson), Washington, DC, 1926: xvi-xxi.


Except where noted, bibliographica information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.[18]

Poems[]

  • 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
  • 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
  • "To the Right and Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth ..." from Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1802 edition)

See also[]

On_Virtue_by_Phillis_Wheatley

On Virtue by Phillis Wheatley

Two_Poems_by_Phyllis_Miracle_Wheatley

Two Poems by Phyllis Miracle Wheatley

References[]

  • Richard Abcarian & Marvin Klotz, "Phillis Wheatley." In Literature: The Human Experience, 9th edition. New York: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2006.
  • Ann Allen Shockley, Afro-American Women Writers. 1746-1933: An Anthology and critical guide, New Haven, CT: Meridian Books, 1989. ISBN 0-452-00981-2
  • Henry Louis Gates, The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's first black poet and her encounters with the founding fathers. Basic Civitas Books, 2003.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gates 2003, 5.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Women's Political and Social Thought: An anthology by Hilda L. Smith, Indiana University Press, 2000, page 123.
  3. ↑ Carretta, Vincent. Complete Writings by Phillis Wheatley. Penguin Books; New York, New York. 2001.
  4. ↑ Odell, Margaretta M. Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave. Boston: Geo. W. Light, 1834.
  5. ↑ Doak, Robin S. Phillis Wheatley: Slave and Poet. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2007.
  6. ↑ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah, Basic Civitas Books, 1999, page 1171.
  7. ↑ Ellis Cashmore, review of The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, Nellie Y. McKay & Henry Louis Gates, eds., New Statesman, April 25, 1997.
  8. ↑ Phillis Wheatley page, comments on Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, accessed Oct. 5, 2007
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Shields, John C. "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism", American Literature 52.1 (1980): 97-111. Web. November 2, 2009, p. 101.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Shields, "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism", American Literature 52.1 (1980), p. 100.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Shields, "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism", American Literature 52.1 (1980), p. 103.
  12. ↑ Shields, John C. "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism", American Literature 52.1 (1980): 97-111. Web. November 2, 2009, p. 102.
  13. ↑ Shields, "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism", American Literature 52.1 (1980), 98.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Gates 2003, 33.
  15. ↑ http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/whea-phi.htm
  16. ↑ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
  17. ↑ Phillis Wheatley, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. Web, Dec. 30, 2012.
  18. ↑ Phillis Wheatley 1753-1784, Poetry Foundation. Web, Dec. 30, 2012.

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