A Bright Epiphany Light Phillis Wheatley

Statue of Phillis Wheatley on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail

 

"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.

That was one of the first poems written by Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet. 

The internalized oppression makes me weep every time I read it.

Born in West Africa - either in present day Gambia or Senegal - in 1753, Ms. Phillis was was sold by a local chief to a visiting trader, who took her to Boston in the then British Colony of Massachusetts on July 11, 1761,^[on a slave ship called The Phillis. She was seven or eight years old.

After she arrived in Boston, Ms. Phillis was bought by the wealthy Boston merchant and tailor, John Wheatley, as a slave for his wife Susanna. She was named after the slave ship that took her from her homeland, and was given their surname. Her birth name is not recorded in history.

It was common in those days for people to know the birth date, place and pedigree of their cattle and horses and even their house pets, but not of the humans they held in bondage. 

The Wheatleys' 18-year-old daughter, Mary, was Ms. Phillis's first tutor in reading and writing. Their son, Nathaniel, also tutored her. John Wheatley was known as a progressive throughout New England; his family afforded Ms. Phillis an unprecedented education for an enslaved person, and one unusual for a woman of any race at the time.

When she was 11, she began corresponding with preachers and friends. By the age of 12, Ms. Phillis was reading Greek and Latin classics in their original languages, as well as difficult passages from the Bible. At the age of 14, she wrote her first poem, "To the University of Cambridge [Harvard], in New England," complete with classical Greek references.

In that poem, she encourages Harvard students to be grateful for their privileges and to live virtuously. The poem wasn't published until 1773. Ms. Phillis would encounter great difficulty in getting her work published, even though the Wheatleys promoted her enthusiastically.

At first, publishers in Boston had declined to publish her poetry, doubting that an African slave was capable of writing such excellent poetry.

Ms. Phillis was forced to defend herself and her integrity in court in 1772. Indeed, she was defended in court by several prominent people, including John Hancock, as well as the Mayor of Boston and the Lt. Governor and Governor of Massachusetts, who all had read her work, examined Ms. Phillis, and verified its authenticity.

They even signed a statement which exonerated her.

In 1773, Susannah Wheatley sent Ms. Phillis to England. Even though Phillis’s fame was growing, Susannah felt she would have a better chance of publishing her poems in England. 

 She sent Ms. Phillis, escorted by Susannah’s son, Nathaniel, to London where she met many important figures of the day.

Influential people in London were very interested in her poetry and many became her patrons. Her collected works, ‘Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral' was published in London in 1773. This publication brought Ms. Phillis fame in both England and in the American colonies. She included the signed statement from her case in court in the preface of that book.

Unfortunately, shortly after her arrival in London Ms. Phillis learned that Susanna Wheatley had become gravely ill. Phillis returned immediately to Boston and in 1774 Susanna died.

Ms. Phillis was freed but stayed on with John Wheatley until he died in 1778. Her freedom meant she had lost her patrons and even though she had written a second volume of poems in 1779, she could not get them published. Fortunately, some of her poems from the second volume were later published in pamphlets and newspapers.

While none other than George Washington praised her work, Thomas Jefferson, in his book Notes on the State of Virginia, was unwilling to acknowledge the value of her work or the work of any black poet. He wrote:

Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar oestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis Whately but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism.

Jefferson was not the only noted, Enlightenment figure who held racist views. Such luminaries as David Hume and Emmanuel Kant likewise believed Africans were not fully human.

Unfortunately, her poetry has earned her controversy and criticism from Black scholars as well, seeing her work as a prime example of "Uncle Tom Syndrome," and believing that this furthers this syndrome among descendants of Africans in the Americas.

Others have argued on her behalf, citing that her work was used successfully by abolitionists as evidence of the intellectual and creative capacities of African descendants. Henry Louis Gates asked "What would happen if we ceased to stereotype Wheatley but, instead, read her, read her with all the resourcefulness that she herself brought to her craft?"

Shortly after the death of John Wheatley and her emancipation, Ms. Phillis met and married John Peters, an impoverished free black grocer. They lived in poor conditions and two of their babies died.

John was imprisoned for debt in 1784. With a sickly infant son to provide for, Ms. Phillis became a a scullery maid at a boarding house, doing work she had never done before. She developed pneumonia and died on December 5, 1784, at the age of 31, after giving birth to a daughter, who died the same day as her.

It is never easy to be "the first" in any category but it certainly helps when one is to the position born. That would seem to be so for Ms. Phillis Wheatley. In her very short life with its tragic ending - too soon! - she was able to open minds and hearts to her full humanity and so, the possibility of the full humanity of others - including that of her oppressors.

Her life and her work demonstrated that art in all of its forms - poetry, literature, music, sculpture, pottery, fabric - is able to cross boundaries and cultures and languages and weaken the stronghold of prejudice and bigotry, even while bearing its unbearable burdens. 

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.