Phillis Wheatley

Clearly a gifted child, she was tutored by Mrs. Wheatley.  She received no formal schooling, but her progress was amazing. Mr. Wheatley wrote:



     "PHILLIS was brought from Africa to America, in the Year 1761, between seven and eight Years of Age. Without any Assistance from School Education, and by only what she was taught in the Family, she, in sixteen Months Time from her Arrival, attained the English language, to which she was an utter Stranger before, to such a degree, as to read any, the most difficult Parts of the Sacred Writings, to the great Astonishment of all who heard her.



     "As to her WRITING, her own Curiosity led her to it; and this she learnt in so short a Time, that in the Year 1765, she wrote a Letter to the Rev. Mr. OCCOM, the Indian Minister, while in England.



     "She has a great Inclination to learn the Latin Tongue, and has made some Progress in it. This Relation is given by her Master who bought her, and with whom she now lives."



Her first poem, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin," was published in 1767, but her reputation was made with the appearance of "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770" which was published widely in the northern colonies and England.  Ms. Wheatley suffered from asthma aggravated by the New England climate: in 1773, she and the Wheatley's traveled to England where she recuperated.  There they found a publisher for her poetry.  The collection, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was the first published book of poetry by an African-American.



Some were skeptical, perhaps because of her age and their racism, that she was truly the author. In response, her publisher included the letter from Mr. Wheatley (above). The publisher also included the following:



"AS it has been repeatedly suggested to the Publisher, by Persons, who have seen the Manuscript, that Numbers would be ready to suspect they were not really the Writings of PHILLIS, he has procured the following Attestation, from the most respectable Characters in Boston, that none might have the least Ground for disputing their Original.



" WE whose Names are underwritten, do assure the World, that the POEMS specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town. She has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them.



His Excellency THOMAS HUTCHINSON, Governor.



The Hon. ANDREW OLIVER, Lieutenant-Governor.



[The signatures of sixteen others, including John Hancock, follow.]



Ms Wheatley was a product of her times (and her New England education): her primary themes were religious and classical.  However, she also wrote openly about race:



Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.



The Wheatleys returned to Boston in 1773, and John Wheatley freed Phillis.  Nonetheless, she stayed on with the Wheatleys, caring for them in their declining years.  In 1776, with the Revolution underway, she wrote a letter and poem of support to George Washington.  He replied with praise and an invitation to visit.



John Wheatley died in 1778 and Phillis was on her own: she was free but impoverished.  She married a free African-American, John Peters, of whom little is know except that he was not financially successful,  The Peters had three children, and Phillis struggled to support her family as a seamstress and poet.  The children all died young.  Phillis in turn died in poverty at age 31.  Her second volume of poems was lost and never recovered.  Nonetheless, her influence lived on:



Wheatley was the first Black writer of consequence in America; and her life was an inspiring example to future generations of African-Americans.  In the 1830s, abolitionists reprinted her poetry and the powerful ideas contained in her deeply moving verse stood against the institution of slavery. (Phillis Wheatley: Precursor of American Abolitionism; The Forerunner International)



The political significance of Ms Wheatley's work should not be overlooked.  The belief in equality and the practice of slavery could be reconciled only by assuming that African-Americans were inherently inferior; that they were outside of the group that was "created equal."  Her talent and erudition belied that assumption; her work exposed the hypocrisy of the slave-owning revolutionaries.  Nonetheless, George Washington had responded with civility and praise to her poem and letter.



But Thomas Jefferson was different.  He maligned Ms Wheatley's poetry in Notes on the State of Virginia:



"Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis [sic] Wheately [sic] but it could not produce a poet.  The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism."



Today these words serve only to sully the reputation of Jefferson and to perpetuate the memory of Phillis Wheatley.