Phillis Wheatley
The First African American Published Female Poet
As the first published African American female in the eighteenth century, poet Phillis Wheatley incorporated Christian references to describe the plight of the enslaved.
Phillis Wheatley
The first African-American published female poet, Phillis Wheatley, helped jumpstart African-American literary, and particularly, African-American women’s literary, tradition. Critics of her work still debate whether her work sought social reform with its Christian and classical references, while criticizing white oppression, or if the writings, often abolitionist in nature, were advocating assimilation into the dominant white culture.
Her poetry professes the marginalized point-of-view of a black female, and reflects the era in which she was writing. She became a sensation in Boston in the 1760s during a time of political and economic unrest with the British crown, and continued to publish throughout the Revolutionary War in support of freedom from tyranny.
Born in Africa in the early 1750s, possibly 1753, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1761 and brought to Boston to be sold on the slave market. Bought by the prominent Wheatley family, she became a part of the family; the Wheatleys educated her, and she demonstrated her literary talents early on.
Although she never attended a formal school, receiving tutoring from Mary Wheatley instead, she also learned Greek and Latin. She became well-versed in Christianity, and poetry, and the influence of Milton, Pope, and Gray can be seen in her poetry. Her poetry appeared in a range of forms, from elegies and odes, to narratives and dramatic monologues.
For Wheatley, poetry became her avenue of expression, and her first published poem, “On Messrs Hussey and Coffin,” appeared in the Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury on 21 December 1767. A demonstration of Christian piety and remarkable literary maturity, this poem created a stir in Boston, and during the next two years, Wheatley published an additional seven poems in London and New England.
Despite her apparent literary talent, Boston was not yet ready to recognize an African woman, and a slave at that, as a literary genius. She also happened to publish during a time in which many white Americans were embroiled in a debate over the capacity for intelligence of the African; many felt the African was ignorant and deficient, while others argued that the Africans were ignorant due to lack of intelligent instruction and education.
Wheatley’s poetry demonstrates an acute awareness of this culture with her frequent references to her African heritage in her poetry, including her notations of her “sable race” or her reference to herself as “Africa’s muse.”
Many of her manuscripts were carefully rewritten, and in some cases, entirely rewritten for a different audience. For example, her colonial readers and her readers in London read two different versions of many of the poems published in her volume of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773.
Her political poems such as “America” and “On the death of Mr. Snider Murder’d by Richardson” were omitted from the British edition, while others reflect mere cosmetic changes for the British volume, such as “To Mrs. Leonard, On the Death of her Husband,” which changed to “To a Lady on the Death of her Husband.”
The preface to her book not only reflects her position as a slave, but noted that “she had no Intentions ever to have published [her poems]; nor would they have made their appearance, but at the Importunity of many of her best, and most generous friends; to whom she considers herself, as under the greatest Obligation.” This preface ignores her previous literary success, yet the frontpiece of the book does include a portrait of Wheatley, as well as a statement of authenticity signed by sixteen prominent male Bostonians.
The American and British response to the publication of this volume differed greatly, and revealed the cultural anxiety about the rights of the African within the colonies. An anonymous London reviewer in the Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle referred to Wheatley’s position as a slave as “disgraceful,” while another critic commented, “We are much concerned to find that this ingenious young woman is yet a slave.”
American opinion was not so loyal; Thomas Jefferson, for example, wrote, “Religion, indeed has produced a Phyllis Whately (sic), but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism,” thus denying her not only her heritage, but also her literary stature.
The strong British outcry against her bondage resulted in her freedom from slavery in 1777. During the years between the volume’s publication in 1773 and the deaths of her master and mistress in 1777 and 1778, Wheatley was often a guest in London, but upon her return to Boston, her life took a different turn.
She married John Peters, a free African American, which alienated many of her remaining white Bostonian supporters, and she eventually lost many of her British supporters as well. She corresponded with George Washington, and in 1776, had published a poem, “To His Excellency General Washington”. She advertised in The Boston Evening Post in 1779 to find another publisher for her new poems, but this volume was never published. Wheatley died in poverty, although her obituary was published in the Boston newspapers.
Bibliography
Cima, Gay Gibson. “Black and Unmarked: Phillis Wheatley, Mercy Otis Warren, and the Limits of Strategic Anonymity.” Theatre Journal 52.4 (2000): 465-495.
Foster, Frances Smith. Written by Herself: Literary Production by African-American Women, 1746-1892. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1993.
Kendrick, Robert. “Re-remembering America: Phillis Wheatley’s Intertextual Epic.” African American Review 30.1 (Spring 1996): 71-89.
Richards, Phillip M. “Phillis Wheatley and Literary Americanization.” American Quarterly 44.2 (June 1992):163-191.
