Phillis Wheatley Americas First African American Poet Phillis

Phillis Wheatley America’s First African American Poet

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley • • Phillis The Wheatley family taught On December 21, 1767, the Wheatley was born in Africa Newport Phillis English, (probably Senegal) about 1753 or 1754. Christianity, Latin, ancient history, Mercury published the 14 year old’s first • poem, a tale of two men who nearly drowned mythology and classical literature. When she was about eight years old, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston where she • The Wheatleys, clearly a family of culture at sea, and of their steady faith in God. landed July 11, 1761. • and education, allowed Her elegy for the evangelist George Phillis time to study • Whitefield in 1770, brought more attention and write. There John Wheatley bought her for his wife, Susanna, as a personal servant. • Her situation allowed her time to learn and to her including visits by a number of • Boston's notables, including political figures to write poetry. As was the custom of the time, she was Phillis Wheatley had fewer given the Wheatley family's surname. restrictions than most slaves experienced -- and poets. • • but she was still a slave. For a first name, she was given the name of She published more poems each year and a the ship that had brought her to Boston, collection of her poems was published in Phillis London on September 1, 1773 when she was . 19.

Phillis Wheatley The introduction to this volume of poetry by Phillis Wheatley is unusual: as a preface is an "attestation" by seventeen men of Boston (including the Governor of Massachusetts) WE whose Names are underwritten, do assure the World, that the that she had, indeed, written the poems POEMS specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe) herself: 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.

Phillis Wheatley Phillis dedicated the book to the Countess of On October 26, 1775, well before American • • The central theme of this poem is “freedom’s Huntingdon in England. Independence was declared in 1776, Phillis cause, ” the colonies’ struggle for freedom • The collection of poems followed a trip that Wheatley sent a poem she had written to from England, which General Washington she took to England. She was sent to George Washington, lauding his appointment was assigned to lead. England for health when the Wheatley's • as commander of the Continental Army. Like many other residents of Boston, son, Nathaniel, was traveling to England on Wheatley’s feelings for the British regime business. turned from obedient admiration to mild • She caused quite a sensation in Europe. admonition, and finally, to support of the • She had to return unexpectedly to America revolution. • when they received word that Mrs. Wheatley The poem anticipates the future for the new was ill. republic, and praises the efforts of its military • Mrs. Wheatley died the next spring. leader and first president.

Phillis Wheatley To His Excellency General Washington Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates Fam'd for thy valour , for thy virtues more, Celestial choir! enthron'd in realms of light, Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia's state! How pour her armies through a thousand gates, Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore! Columbia's scenes of glorious toils I write. In bright array they seek the work of war, Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late. As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms, One century scarce perform'd its destined round, While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms, Where high unfurl'd the ensign waves in air. Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, Enwrapp'd in tempest and a night of storms; When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found; She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Thy ev'ry action let the goddess guide. Olive and laurel binds her golden hair; Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar, And so may you, whoever dares disgrace See mother earth her offspring's fate bemoan, Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight. A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine, Wherever shines the native of the skies, The refluent surges beat the sounding shore; The land of freedom's heaven-defended race! And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! Thee, first in peace and honours, -we demand With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine. Unnumber'd charms and recent graces rise. Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign, Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales, See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light The grace and glory of thy martial band. Such, as so many, moves the warriors's train. For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails. Involved in sorrows and the veil of night! Anon Britannia droops the pensive head, While round increase the rising hills of dead.

Cambridge, February 28, 1776. Phillis Wheatley If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near Head Quarters, I shall be happy to see a In honour of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the Poem, Washington, as busy as he was with organizing the colonies to take delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. Mrs. Phillis : Your favour of the 26 th of October did not reach my hands 'till the middle of had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give the World this new instance person so favoured by the Muses, and to whom Nature has been so liberal and beneficent December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a on the British, sent a letter back to Wheatley thanking her for the of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of Vanity. This and nothing else, in her dispensations. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant Lines you enclosed; variety of important occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and determined me not to give it place in the public Prints. I am, with great Respect, etc. poem and inviting her to visit him if she ever came to Cambridge, and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyrick, the style and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the Massachusetts. manner exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical Talents.

Phillis Wheatley • • Having children, trying to support the family, When her master died in March of 1778, she The two did meet in March of 1776, seven Washington was roundly lauded in poems • Considering that Eventually John deserted Phillis. In poverty When in 1773, Phillis Wheatley published Wheatley was freed. Mary Wheatley, the daughter of the losing two children to death, and dealing with years before the war was finished and true and prose after the successful conclusion of and among strangers, on December 5, 1784, her collection of poems entitled bought at a slave auction in 1761, not able to Poems on family, died that same year. the war's effects and a shaky marriage, independence was declared. the Revolutionary War in 1783, but she died, and her third child died hours after Various read or write and incapable of speaking Subjects, Religious and Moral Phillis , it • Wheatley’s poem was written when the Wheatley was able to publish few poems • A month after the death of John Wheatley, In April of 1776, the author and political she did. was the first book of poetry published by an English, her work is truly astounding. Phillis during this period. philosopher Thomas Paine published war’s outcome was very uncertain, the • Her last known poem was written for African American, and only the second book Wheatley married John Peters, a free • black man of Boston. Wheatley’s poem to Washington in British being the obvious favorites to win. She addressed several other poems to George Washington. by a woman in what would become the The Washington. She sent them to him, but he • Pennsylvania It can be said that Wheatley was the United States. Magazine. never responded again. groundbreaker in beginning the Washington • Benjamin Franklin offered his services to legend as the “father of our country. ” her, as did many other high-ranking men in America.

Phillis Wheatley

Bibliography Photo of Phillis’ book of poetry: Scipio Moorhead. “Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston. ” Frontispiece engraving to Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London: Printed for A. Bell, 1773; PS 866. W 5 1773 RBSC). Rare Book and Special Collections Division. LC-USZC 4 -5316 (color); LC-USZ 62 -40054 (black and white). http: //www. loc. gov/exhibits/treasures/images/tlc 0395. jpg Library of Congress: Rare Book and Special Collections Division

Bibliography Washington’s letter to Wheatley: George Washington to Phillis Wheatley, February 28, 1776 http: //memory. loc. gov/mss/mgw 3 h/001/013012. jpg http: //memory. loc. gov/mss/mgw 3 h/001/014013. jpg The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress 17411799 Credit Line: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.

Photograph of George Washington: Bibliography The Prayer at Valley Forge / painted by H. Brueckner ; engd. by John C. Mc. Rae, New York : John C. Mc. Rae, c 1866. SUMMARY George Washington praying under trees; military camp in background. REPOSITORY Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D. C. 20540 USA http: //memory. loc. gov/service/pnp/cph/3 a 00000/3 a 07400/ 3 a 07460 v. jpg Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ 62 -4036 DLC

Bibliography Phillis’ signature: A letter from Phillis Wheatley to Dear Obour, Dated Boston, March 21, 1774. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 37, Folder 26 b. DIGITAL ID rbpe 0370260 b http: //hdl. loc. gov/loc. rbc/rbpe. 0370260 b http: //memory. loc. gov/rbc/rbpe 03/rbpe 037/0370260 b/001 dr. j pg