Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Coming up this week on the show,
Speaker 1: we have a podcast subject who has some parallels with
Speaker 1: Phillis Sweetly. Since we have a previous episode on Wheatly,
Speaker 1: we thought it would be a good time to share
Speaker 1: this one out of the archive. This episode originally came
Speaker 1: out on mar So Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and
Speaker 1: I'm Holly fry. So. I've had the same experience multiple
Speaker 1: times over the last year or so, which is that
Speaker 1: I've been walking through museum or a library and I've
Speaker 1: seen an exhibit on Phillis Sweetly and thought we really
Speaker 1: should do a podcast episode on her now. Then that
Speaker 1: keeps happening for at least a year, while for various reasons,
Speaker 1: other topics wind up at the top of the list.
Speaker 1: So Phillis s. Wheetlely is somebody whose basic biography I
Speaker 1: learned about and whose work I read in school. But
Speaker 1: it was only when I got into the research for
Speaker 1: today's show that I realized how very, very incomplete a
Speaker 1: lot of that was, and how dramatically people's perceptions and
Speaker 1: their interpretations of her life and work have shifted since
Speaker 1: eighteenth century. I mean, people have thought wildly different things
Speaker 1: about Phillis Sweetly over the years. So today we are
Speaker 1: going to talk about not only Phillis S. Wheetlee, who
Speaker 1: was one of only three people in North America to
Speaker 1: publish their work while enslaved, but also how her place
Speaker 1: in the world of literature, especially black literature, rose and
Speaker 1: then fell, and then rose again during her life and
Speaker 1: after her death. Phyllis Wheatley was likely born in what's
Speaker 1: now Senegal or the Gambia in about seventeen fifty three.
Speaker 1: We don't have details about exactly where she was from,
Speaker 1: or which African nation or people she belonged to. Even
Speaker 1: a connection to the Senegambia region is a little tenuous.
Speaker 1: The slave ship that took her to Boston, Massachusetts did
Speaker 1: stop there, but it also made several other stops in
Speaker 1: Western Africa, so it's really tricky to pin down. The
Speaker 1: crew moved south along the African coast as they tried
Speaker 1: to carry out the orders of the ship's owner, Timothy Fitch,
Speaker 1: which were to quote, purchase one hundred or one hundred
Speaker 1: ten prime slaves. Phillis herself did not really fit that
Speaker 1: description of quote prime slaves. She was about seven, judging
Speaker 1: by the fact that she lost her front baby teeth
Speaker 1: by the time she arrived in Boston. She was also small,
Speaker 1: and she was in poor health. She probably would not
Speaker 1: have been purchased during the ship's first stops in Africa,
Speaker 1: but only later on and a final attempt for the
Speaker 1: crew to fill that quota they'd been given. The ship
Speaker 1: finally departed with nine enslaved Africans aboard, so Phillis may
Speaker 1: have been from farther south along the African coast, possibly
Speaker 1: as far south as Sierra Leone. We also don't know
Speaker 1: what Phillis Wheatley's name was before she was taken from Africa,
Speaker 1: or even what language it was in the ship she
Speaker 1: was aboard. Arrived in Boston, as we mentioned, and that
Speaker 1: happened on July eleventh, seventeen sixty one, with seventy five
Speaker 1: enslaved Africans still living after the eight week transatlantic journey.
Speaker 1: In August, John and Susannah Wheatley purchased her, and they
Speaker 1: named her after the ship they bought her from, which
Speaker 1: was called the Charming Phillis, also known simply as Phyllis.
Speaker 1: By the time the ship arrived in Boston, Phillis herself
Speaker 1: was in poor enough health that she was considered to
Speaker 1: be refuse, which was the term that was used for
Speaker 1: enslaved people who were too old, sick, or injured to
Speaker 1: be sailable. Charles J. Stratford, who was descended from one
Speaker 1: of Susannah Wheatley's relatives, described it this way. Quote In
Speaker 1: or about the year seventeen sixty one, a slave ship
Speaker 1: arrived in Boston Harbor with the cargo of slaves, and
Speaker 1: Beatley was in want of a domestic. She went on
Speaker 1: board to purchase, and looking through the ship's company of
Speaker 1: living freight, her attention was drawn to that of a slender,
Speaker 1: frail female child, which at once enlisted her sympathies. Owing
Speaker 1: to the frailty of the child, she procured her for
Speaker 1: a trifle, as the captain had fears of her dropping
Speaker 1: off his hands without emolument by death. John Wheatley was
Speaker 1: a prosperous tailor and merchant, and he and his wife
Speaker 1: Susannah had twin children, Mary and Nathaniel, who were about
Speaker 1: eighteen at the time, and the family quickly realized that
Speaker 1: Phillis was really Bright, John and Susannah gave their children,
Speaker 1: especially Mary, permission to tutor her. By the age of
Speaker 1: about nine, just two years after she arrived in Boston,
Speaker 1: Phyllis had learned how to speak, read, and write in English.
Speaker 1: In addition to doing extensive Bible study, she also started
Speaker 1: learning Latin and Greek, including translating part of Ovid's Metamorphoses
Speaker 1: expand Get into the poem Naobian Distress for her children
Speaker 1: Slain by Apollo. Later on, she also studied literature, history, geography,
Speaker 1: and astronomy, and she also read lots and lots of poetry.
Speaker 1: Her work is most often compared to English neo classical
Speaker 1: poet Alexander Pope, but she read the work of other poets,
Speaker 1: including some from the colonies. One of these was Mather Byles,
Speaker 1: who seventeen forty four poems on Various Occasions may have
Speaker 1: inspired the structure and arrangement of Phyllis's own book. She
Speaker 1: was so voracious in her education that she was allowed
Speaker 1: to spend more time in study than in domestic labor
Speaker 1: at the Wheatly home. This was well before the rise
Speaker 1: of anti literacy slave codes, which were passed, and most
Speaker 1: of the South in the early nineteenth century and made
Speaker 1: it illegal to teach enslaved people to read and write,
Speaker 1: but even so in the eighteenth century it was not
Speaker 1: typical at all to educate enslaved people. Even though she
Speaker 1: had no formal education, Phillis sweet Lea's tutor ring and
Speaker 1: her self study also went well beyond what would have
Speaker 1: been expected for eighteenth century white women. In seventeen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: two men from Nantucket visited the Wheatly home, and they
Speaker 1: told a story about how they'd been sailing there from
Speaker 1: Boston when a storm struck their ship. They had narrowly
Speaker 1: escaped disaster. Phyllis overheard their conversation and she wrote a
Speaker 1: poem about it, which became her first published work, on
Speaker 1: Mrs Hussey and Coffin, and that was printed in the
Speaker 1: December seventeen sixty seven edition of the Newport, Rhode Island Mercury.
Speaker 1: She was fourteen at the time. By seventeen seventy so
Speaker 1: just a few years later, tensions were rising between Britain
Speaker 1: and its colonies. Although the Wheatly family were by all
Speaker 1: accounts loyalists, meaning that they were loyal to Britain, Phyllis's
Speaker 1: sympathies were with the Patriots cause. She attended church at
Speaker 1: the Old South Meeting House, which is a place that
Speaker 1: comes up over and over again in stories about the
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War, and in seventeen seventy she wrote two poems
Speaker 1: about relevant events of the day that made it really
Speaker 1: clear which side she was on. The first, on the
Speaker 1: Death of Mr. Snyder Murdered by Richardson. She describes the
Speaker 1: murder of a boy named Christopher Snyder or Cider at
Speaker 1: the hands of customs officer Ebenezer Richardson. In this poem,
Speaker 1: she describes Christopher as a murdyr. The second is on
Speaker 1: the affray in King Street on the evening of the
Speaker 1: fifth of March seventeen seventy. It's not completely clear whether
Speaker 1: the second one, which is obviously about the Boston massacre,
Speaker 1: has survived. There is a poem with that name that
Speaker 1: was published in the Boston Evening Post on March twelfth,
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, but it was not signed, and while some
Speaker 1: critics say it's the same poem, others are not so sure.
Speaker 1: That was a pretty common way of describing the Boston massacre,
Speaker 1: which is why it's believable that two different poets could
Speaker 1: have written a poem about it with roughly the same title.
Speaker 1: Was also in seventeen seventy that Phillis Wheetlely wrote the
Speaker 1: poem that would make her famous. This was called an
Speaker 1: Elegaic Poem on the Death of that celebrated Divine and
Speaker 1: eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learning George Whitefield.
Speaker 1: Whitefield was an Anglican deacon who toward the colonies that
Speaker 1: employed a style of preaching that was incredibly dynamic and charismatic.
Speaker 1: He was really instrumental in the religious revival that was
Speaker 1: known as the Great Awakening. How to say, these are
Speaker 1: not the snappiest poem titles. They all tend to run
Speaker 1: a little long. Uh. Phillis wrote the elegy shortly after
Speaker 1: Whitefield died on September seventeen seventy. It was first circulated
Speaker 1: as a pamphlet in cities like Boston and Philadelphia. In
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy one, it was reprinted along with the funeral
Speaker 1: sermon that Ebenezer Pemberton had delivered on October eleventh, seventeen seventy.
Speaker 1: This reprinting gave Wheatley an audience on both sides of
Speaker 1: the Atlantic, especially after she sent a copy to Selina Hastings,
Speaker 1: Counts of Huntingdon. In addition to his preaching tours in
Speaker 1: the colonies, Whitefield had been the Countess's personal chaplain. Almost instantly,
Speaker 1: Phillis S. Wheetlely became the most famous African in Britain
Speaker 1: and its colonies, very well known as a poet. And
Speaker 1: we will talk about what followed in the now famous
Speaker 1: Phillis Wheetley's writing career. After a quick sponsor break, Phillis
Speaker 1: Sweetly kept writing new poems in the early seventeen seventies.
Speaker 1: Although some of them were published in pamphlets and newspapers,
Speaker 1: she didn't really want to just scatter them all around,
Speaker 1: publishing them in lots of different places. She wanted to
Speaker 1: publish them together in a book, and by seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: two she had written enough to do it. But to
Speaker 1: fund this book's publication, she needed to find subscribers to
Speaker 1: commit to buying the work in advance. I imagine this
Speaker 1: as sort of a colonial version of Kickstarter. Either she
Speaker 1: or Susanna Wheatley, you're possibly both of them, working together
Speaker 1: started placing advertisements for this forthcoming book with Ezekiel Russell
Speaker 1: as its printer, but sometime that summer, Phillis turned her
Speaker 1: attention to publishing in England instead. The reasons for this
Speaker 1: are not entirely clear. There are a number of accounts
Speaker 1: that claim that she wasn't able to find enough subscribers
Speaker 1: in the colonies, but they don't really cite primary sources
Speaker 1: for that. But there is a seventeen seventy three letter
Speaker 1: from one of her subscribers, John Andrews of Boston, who
Speaker 1: suggested that it was really for financial reasons. Basically she
Speaker 1: was getting better terms from a London press. The not
Speaker 1: enough subscribers argument usually comes along with the explanation that
Speaker 1: racism was the root cause of her not finding an
Speaker 1: audience in the colonies, and this was not racism as
Speaker 1: in white readers maliciously not wanting to read the work
Speaker 1: of a black person. It was really racism as in
Speaker 1: white there's disbelieving that a black person could have even
Speaker 1: written it. For the institution of slavery to exist the
Speaker 1: way that it did in the American colonies, it had
Speaker 1: to rest on the idea that Africans were less than
Speaker 1: human and were inherently less intelligent than Europeans. So there
Speaker 1: were definitely people on both sides of the Atlantic who
Speaker 1: thought that Wheatley's poems must be some kind of fraud.
Speaker 1: Wheatley dealt with this by getting some of Boston's most
Speaker 1: prominent men to sign an attestation that she really was
Speaker 1: the author of her own poems. This included Massachusetts Governor
Speaker 1: Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver, the Reverend Mother Biles,
Speaker 1: and the Reverend Samuel mother nephew and son of Cotton Mother,
Speaker 1: the Reverend Charles Chauncey, and John Hancock. A copy of
Speaker 1: this attestation, dated October seventeen seventy two, appeared in Lloyd's
Speaker 1: Evening Post and British Chronicle in September of the following year,
Speaker 1: and a lightly reworded version of it was part of
Speaker 1: Wheatley's first book as well. And here's what the book
Speaker 1: version said. Quote, we whose names are underwritten do assure
Speaker 1: the world that the poems specified in the following page were,
Speaker 1: as we verily believe, written by Phillis, a young Negro
Speaker 1: girl who, but a few years since brought an uncultivated
Speaker 1: barbarian from Africa, has ever since been and now is
Speaker 1: under the disadvantage of serving as a slave and a
Speaker 1: family in this town. She has been examined by some
Speaker 1: of the best judges and is thought qualified to write them.
Speaker 1: Although it's become part of the popular lore about Phillis
Speaker 1: Wheatley that this took place, there's no actual evidence that
Speaker 1: the undersigned men actually met in a group and interrogated
Speaker 1: her about her work. There's even a children's book that
Speaker 1: hinges on this supposed meeting. It's actually a much more
Speaker 1: likely scenario that there was a big meeting that was
Speaker 1: documented to have happened on October um, and she took
Speaker 1: advantage of this gathering of prominent men to stop by
Speaker 1: and and say, hey, would you please sign this at
Speaker 1: a station that I actually wrote my own work. This
Speaker 1: at of station was not the only step that she
Speaker 1: took and getting her book published in England and in
Speaker 1: getting people to believe that she had really written what
Speaker 1: was in the book. She also wrote to William Legg,
Speaker 1: the Earl of Dartmouth, in October of seventeen seventy two,
Speaker 1: sending him a copy of a poem she had written
Speaker 1: about him. The Earl had just been named Secretary of
Speaker 1: State for the Colonies, and she both celebrated his appointment
Speaker 1: in the poem and included another attestation of her authenticity,
Speaker 1: this one signed by Nathaniel Wheatley. Phyllis also made a
Speaker 1: third connection to Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, the
Speaker 1: one whose personal chaplain had been the Reverend George Whitefield.
Speaker 1: The Countess Lord Dartmouth, and Susannah Wheatley were all connected
Speaker 1: through the Countess of Huntingdon's connection, which was a network
Speaker 1: of evangelical churches and chapel. Phillis dedicated her manuscript to
Speaker 1: the Countess, who advocated for its publication in England through
Speaker 1: publisher Archibald Bell. Accompanied by Nathaniel Wheatley, Phillis went to
Speaker 1: London in seventeen seventy three to oversee the publication of
Speaker 1: her book. Sometimes this trip is also described as being
Speaker 1: for the sake of her health. She was definitely there
Speaker 1: to work on the book. By this point, she'd established
Speaker 1: such a name for herself that she had a huge
Speaker 1: list of notable people to visit. Probably the name that
Speaker 1: people would be most likely to recognize today is Benjamin Franklin,
Speaker 1: who was at the time in London. If you've listened
Speaker 1: to the Dido Elizabeth Bell segment of our episode three
Speaker 1: Astonishing Bells, you'll recall that we talked about the Somerset Case,
Speaker 1: and this was a court case decided in seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: two in which Lord Mansfield ruled that an enslaved person
Speaker 1: brought to England could not be sold back into slavery.
Speaker 1: In some places this was interpreted as freeing all slaves
Speaker 1: in England, which it didn't re we do, but it
Speaker 1: did mean that when Phillis Wheatley arrived in London the
Speaker 1: following year, under English law, she could not be forced
Speaker 1: back into slavery. It's possible that this is one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that she decided to publish her book in
Speaker 1: England rather than in the colonies. People in Boston definitely
Speaker 1: knew about the Somerset case by the time she made
Speaker 1: that decision. Phillis Sweetley's first and only published book, which
Speaker 1: was Poems on various subjects religious and moral, was published
Speaker 1: on September one, seventeen seventy three. This is the first
Speaker 1: published volume of poetry by an African woman in the
Speaker 1: English speaking world. It included that attestation of her authenticity
Speaker 1: that we read earlier, along with a letter from John
Speaker 1: Wheatley briefly detailing where she came from and how she
Speaker 1: had been educated, and concluding quote relation is given by
Speaker 1: her master, who bought her and with whom she now lives.
Speaker 1: The book's frontispiece featured a portrait of her, ringed in
Speaker 1: the words Phillis Sweetley negro servant to Mr John Wheatley
Speaker 1: of Boston, and that portrait is likely the work of
Speaker 1: enslaved African painter Scipio Moorehead, who was also the subject
Speaker 1: of Wheatly's poem to s M. A young African painter,
Speaker 1: on seeing his works. If you're wondering about that wording
Speaker 1: of negro servant. A lot of people who were enslaved
Speaker 1: were referred to as servants, especially in England and New England.
Speaker 1: A few weeks after Phillis arrived in England, Susannah Wheatley
Speaker 1: became seriously ill, and Phillis returned to Massachusetts to attend
Speaker 1: to her. Her ship arrived on September sixteen, seventeen seventy three.
Speaker 1: Four days later, The Boston Gazette noted her arrival among
Speaker 1: notable passengers aboard her ship, calling her an extraordinary poetical genius.
Speaker 1: At some point not long after that Phillis was manumitted
Speaker 1: by the Wheatly's, and a letter to David Wooster dated
Speaker 1: October eighteen, seventeen seventy three, she wrote, quote, since my
Speaker 1: return to America, my master has, at the desire of
Speaker 1: my friends in England, given me my freedom. Her book
Speaker 1: had received at least nine reviews in British papers, and
Speaker 1: many of those reviews had really condemned the Wheatlas continued
Speaker 1: enslavement of her. So even though she could really not
Speaker 1: have been forced to return to slavery under the Somerset ruling,
Speaker 1: after having been in England, the wheat Laves made that official.
Speaker 1: Phillis also took the precautionary step of sending a copy
Speaker 1: of her manumission papers to a contact she had in
Speaker 1: London for safe keeping. We're going to talk about what
Speaker 1: we know of Phillis Wheatley's life as a free woman,
Speaker 1: including a famous exchange with George Washington, but we're going
Speaker 1: to first take a little sponsor break. By the time
Speaker 1: Phillis Wheatley returned from England, the colonies were definitely headed
Speaker 1: toward war with Britain. That was, of course, the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1: George Washington was named Commander in Chief of the Continental
Speaker 1: Army on June nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, and on October
Speaker 1: of that year, Phillis Sweetlye sent him a poem she
Speaker 1: had written in his honor along with the letter. The
Speaker 1: letter read quote, I have taken the freedom to address
Speaker 1: your Excellency in the enclosed poem and entreat your acceptance,
Speaker 1: though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. You're being
Speaker 1: appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be General Lissimo
Speaker 1: of the Armies of North America. Together with the fame
Speaker 1: of your virtues excite sensations. Not easy to suppress your generosity. Therefore,
Speaker 1: I presume will pardon the attempt, wishing your excellency all
Speaker 1: possible success in the great cause you are so generously
Speaker 1: engaged in. This poem ends with the widely quoted lines, Proceed,
Speaker 1: great Chief, with virtue on thy side. By every action,
Speaker 1: let the Goddess guide a crown, a mansion, and a
Speaker 1: throne that shine with gold unfading. Washington be the mine
Speaker 1: that Washington is in all caps. Washington's reply, dated February
Speaker 1: tenth of the following year, began with an apology for
Speaker 1: taking so long to answer. It then went on to say,
Speaker 1: quote the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of
Speaker 1: your great poetical talents, in honor of which, and as
Speaker 1: a tribute justly due to you, I would have published
Speaker 1: the poem had I not been apprehensive that while I
Speaker 1: only meant to give the world this new instance of
Speaker 1: your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity.
Speaker 1: This and nothing else determined me not to give it
Speaker 1: place in the public prints. If you should ever come
Speaker 1: to Cambridge or near headquarters, I shall be happy to
Speaker 1: see a person so favored by the muses, and to
Speaker 1: whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.
Speaker 1: I am with great respect, etcetera, etcetera. They're historians are
Speaker 1: divided about whether she actually met George Washington and Cambridge.
Speaker 1: But it cracks me up that this letter is space
Speaker 1: saically like I would have published this incredibly flattering poem
Speaker 1: you wrote about me, but then people might think I'm vain.
Speaker 1: Perhaps to get around that accusation of vanity. George Washington
Speaker 1: also sent the poem to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Reid and
Speaker 1: closing it in a letter that talked about all kinds
Speaker 1: of other various unrelated matters before concluding quote, I recollect
Speaker 1: nothing else worth giving you the trouble of, unless you
Speaker 1: can be amused by reading a letter and poem addressed
Speaker 1: to me by Mrs or Miss Phyllis Wheatley, and searching
Speaker 1: over a parcel of papers the other day in order
Speaker 1: to destroy such as we're useless. I brought it to
Speaker 1: light again, at first with a view of doing justice
Speaker 1: to her great poetical genius. I had a great mind
Speaker 1: to publish the poem, but not knowing whether it might
Speaker 1: be considered rather as a mark of my own vanity
Speaker 1: than as a compliment to her, I laid it aside
Speaker 1: until I came across it again in the manner just mentioned.
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Reid apparently took the hint. The poem was
Speaker 1: published in Pennsylvania Magazine in April of seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 1: and other publications picked it up from there. With the
Speaker 1: onset of the Revolutionary War, things got a lot more
Speaker 1: difficult for Phyllis Wheatly. Susannah Wheatley had died on March third,
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, and then Nathaniel Wheatley had actually died
Speaker 1: a year before. His mother. Mary and John Wheatley both
Speaker 1: died in seventeen seventy eight, so the Wheatly's had kept
Speaker 1: Phillis in bondage, but they'd also essentially been filling the
Speaker 1: role of her patrons. Without their support, she had trouble
Speaker 1: selling poems and making ends meet, especially since the war
Speaker 1: meant that reader's attention was really focused on other matters.
Speaker 1: On April one, seventeen seventy eight, Phyllis Wheatley and a
Speaker 1: free black man named John Peters announced their engagement. They
Speaker 1: married on Thanksgiving Day of that year, which was November
Speaker 1: twenty six. Most biographers have not been very kind to
Speaker 1: John Peters. That kind of paint him as a shiftless
Speaker 1: man who could not get his act together, but in reality,
Speaker 1: things were extremely difficult for free black people in New
Speaker 1: England during the Revolutionary War. Jobs were hard to find,
Speaker 1: the pay was often so low that it wasn't enough
Speaker 1: to live on. So John Peters tried his hand at
Speaker 1: running a grocery and a bakery in a saloon, but
Speaker 1: he just was not able to get a stable financial
Speaker 1: footing under him. He also referred to himself as a
Speaker 1: doctor and at one point practice law, and some biographers
Speaker 1: have made a great big deal of the fact that
Speaker 1: he didn't have a license to do either of those,
Speaker 1: even though there was not a licensing body that he
Speaker 1: could have applied to at the time. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: pretty common practice this in this for people to hang
Speaker 1: out their shingle and say they were a professional in
Speaker 1: a field where today we would have a lot more
Speaker 1: um paperwork and applications and a rouvals before you could
Speaker 1: use those words. For sure, that is not exclusive to
Speaker 1: John Peters at all. We really don't know much at
Speaker 1: all about the last few years of Phillis Wheatley's life,
Speaker 1: except that they seem to have been lived in poverty.
Speaker 1: John Peters wound up in and out of jail for debt,
Speaker 1: and Phillis may have had as many as three children,
Speaker 1: although there were no records kept of their births or deaths.
Speaker 1: She died, most likely due to complications from childbirth, on
Speaker 1: December five, s four, at the age of thirty one,
Speaker 1: with most sources agreeing that her newborn died on that
Speaker 1: same day. Before she died, Phillis sweetly had written a
Speaker 1: second book, which she had tried to publish in seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy nine, but she couldn't find sufficient subscribers to do
Speaker 1: it again. This was during the Revolutionary War. It was difficult.
Speaker 1: That manuscript unfortunately has been lost. John Peters does seem
Speaker 1: to have gotten his financial worries straightened out after the
Speaker 1: war was over, led an upstanding life from that point.
Speaker 1: He is the last person known to have had access
Speaker 1: to that manuscript. He may have taken it with him
Speaker 1: when he eventually left Boston, but exactly where he went
Speaker 1: or what happened to the manuscript is just not clear.
Speaker 1: Fifty seven of Phyllis's poems survived today. Forty six of
Speaker 1: them were published during her lifetime. In six what was
Speaker 1: believed to be her last poem was unearthed. That was
Speaker 1: titled an Elegy on Leaving, and it was published in
Speaker 1: Armenian Magazine, which would later become Methodist Magazine, in July
Speaker 1: sight four. This magazine was edited by John Wesley, the
Speaker 1: founder of Methodism, and it seems as though whoever sent
Speaker 1: the poem to him incorrectly attributed it. According to research
Speaker 1: by Caroline Wiggington, it was really the work of Mary Wadley,
Speaker 1: first published in her collection Original Poems. On several occasions
Speaker 1: twenty years earlier. This is probably an honest mistake somebody made,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about before, or spellings were not very
Speaker 1: standardized at this period, so it was it would have
Speaker 1: been easy for Wheatly and what Lely or Watterly to
Speaker 1: have been spelled in nearly the same or exactly the
Speaker 1: same way. During and after Phillis Wheatley's lifetime, her work
Speaker 1: was used by abolitionists as evidence that Africans were humans
Speaker 1: with souls and intelligence equal to that of Europeans, but
Speaker 1: not everyone had seen her work as evidence of the
Speaker 1: intrinsic humanity and equality of Africans. Thomas Jefferson criticized her
Speaker 1: work heavily in Notes on the State of Virginia in
Speaker 1: seven he wrote quote, Misery is often the parent of
Speaker 1: the most affecting touches and poetry. Among the Blacks is
Speaker 1: misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the
Speaker 1: particular east room of the poet. Their love is ardent,
Speaker 1: but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion indeed,
Speaker 1: has has produced a Phillis Sweetly, but it could not
Speaker 1: produce a poet. The compositions composed under her name are below.
Speaker 1: The dignity of criticism. I want to time travel and
Speaker 1: maybe um uh yeah, I want to say bad things
Speaker 1: to Thomas Jefferson. That's what's up. Aside from Jefferson's disparagement,
Speaker 1: Wheatley's work started to fall out of favor in the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century as it was overshadowed by slave narratives and
Speaker 1: the work of people like Frederick Douglas. This was especially
Speaker 1: true since Wheatly's enslavement had taken place in such relative comfort.
Speaker 1: We don't want to downplay the fact that she was
Speaker 1: still an enslaved person, but there were certainly stories that
Speaker 1: were a lot darker out there circulating. So her stood
Speaker 1: in sharp contrast to the writing that was tied at
Speaker 1: the time to the Antebellum souse. By the turn of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, writers and critics were pointing out a
Speaker 1: range of perceived shortcomings and Phillis sweet Lely's work, including
Speaker 1: that she wasn't personal enough, she wasn't genuine enough, and
Speaker 1: she cared too little for other enslaved Africans. And the
Speaker 1: words of James Weldon Johnson, who was writing in the
Speaker 1: nineteen preface to the Book of American Negro Poetry, quote
Speaker 1: one looks in vain for some outburst or even complaint
Speaker 1: against the bondage of her people, for some agonizing cry
Speaker 1: about her native land. And two poems she refers definitely
Speaker 1: to Africa as her home. But in each instance there
Speaker 1: seems to be under the sentiment of the lines a
Speaker 1: feeling of almost smug contentment at her own escape therefrom
Speaker 1: In the early to mid twentieth century, people started to
Speaker 1: write Phyllis Wheatley off as a second rate imitator of
Speaker 1: Alexander Pope. This sort of criticism really escalated in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, especially within the Black Arts movement, which saw
Speaker 1: Wheatley's work as not nearly political or radical enough. Writing
Speaker 1: in The New Yorker in two thousand three, Dr Henry
Speaker 1: Lewis Gates Junior described it this way, quote too black
Speaker 1: to be taken seriously by white critics in the eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: Wheatley was now considered too white to interest black critics
Speaker 1: critics in the twenty A lot of this criticism cites
Speaker 1: Wheatly's poem on being Brought from Africa to America, and
Speaker 1: the first stanza of this poem reads, twas Mercy brought
Speaker 1: me from my pagan land taught my benighted soul to
Speaker 1: understand that there's a God and there's a savior too.
Speaker 1: Once I redemption neither sought nor new. So in other words,
Speaker 1: she's describing being brought from Africa to America as a
Speaker 1: slave as something merciful, because otherwise she wouldn't have learned
Speaker 1: about the existence of God and sought redemption. But the
Speaker 1: poem's second stanza goes on to condemn racism and hypocrisy
Speaker 1: among Christian slave owners, admonishing them to remember that, to
Speaker 1: use her word, negroes are also human souls who are
Speaker 1: able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Here is the
Speaker 1: second half of that poem. Some view are sable race
Speaker 1: with scornful eye. Their color is a diabolic dye. Remember, Christians,
Speaker 1: negroes black as cane may be refined and joined the
Speaker 1: angelic train. It's also worth noting that this poem, which
Speaker 1: has been used to just write phil As sweetly off completely,
Speaker 1: was written when she was about fourteen years old, and
Speaker 1: if she had lived longer, it would have been thought
Speaker 1: of as part of her juvenile aa and not as
Speaker 1: part of her mature body of work and criticisms that
Speaker 1: she never condemned slavery, are simply not accurate. Here's a
Speaker 1: stanza from to the right Honorable William Earl of Dartmouth,
Speaker 1: which we were referenced earlier. Quote, should you, my lord,
Speaker 1: while you peruse my song, wonder from whence my love
Speaker 1: of freedom sprung? Whence flow these wishes for the common good?
Speaker 1: By feeling hearts alone best understood? I young in life,
Speaker 1: by seeming cruel fate was snatched from Africa's fancied happy seat.
Speaker 1: What pangs excruciating must molest, what sorrows labor in my
Speaker 1: parents breast stealed? Was that soul? And by no misery
Speaker 1: moved that from a father seized his babe beloved? Such
Speaker 1: such my case? And can I then but pray others
Speaker 1: may never feel tyrannic sway? And that same book introduction
Speaker 1: James Weldon Johnson dismissed that poem as unimpassioned. In the
Speaker 1: last few decades, critics and scholars have started to take
Speaker 1: a closer look at Wheatley's actual writing, which had previously
Speaker 1: been overshadowed by her biography and her general noteworthiness as
Speaker 1: an enslaved black poet during the colonial era. Some of
Speaker 1: this traces possible African influences in her work. Several literary critics,
Speaker 1: including John C. Shields and Mary Catherine Loving, also interpreted
Speaker 1: her work as a lot more subversive than previous criticism
Speaker 1: had given it credit for. So it's high to draw
Speaker 1: comparisons to specific African cultures because Africa is not a monolith,
Speaker 1: and we don't know exactly where Philis Wheatly was from
Speaker 1: or what who her people in Africa would have been.
Speaker 1: But several historians have noted that multiple West African people's
Speaker 1: use funeral elegies as a central element of community life,
Speaker 1: with these songs most often being performed by young women.
Speaker 1: Nearly a third of wheatly surviving poems are elegies, and
Speaker 1: structurally they have more in common with African elegies than
Speaker 1: with elegaic poems from when she was living written in Europe.
Speaker 1: Another potential African influence on Wheatly's work is in its imagery.
Speaker 1: Margaretta Matilda O'Dell wrote the first biography, which was published
Speaker 1: with an addition of her poems in eighteen thirty four,
Speaker 1: and in the introduction to that biography, O'Dell claimed, quote,
Speaker 1: she does not seem to have preserved any remembrance of
Speaker 1: the place of her nativity or of her parents, accepting
Speaker 1: the simple circumstance that her mother poured out water before
Speaker 1: the sun at his rising, in reference no doubt to
Speaker 1: an ancient African custom. The rising sun is frequently a
Speaker 1: repeated theme in Wheatley's poetry, as well as plays on
Speaker 1: the words involving son as in the male child and
Speaker 1: son as in the bright blazing object in the sky.
Speaker 1: And then there's the fact that Wheatley was, based on
Speaker 1: everything we know of her, obviously very smart, her making
Speaker 1: connections in London and traveling there after the Somerset case
Speaker 1: was decided to suggest that she was also politically very savvy.
Speaker 1: She also removed a lot of explicitly pro patriot poems
Speaker 1: from that collection of poetry before having it printed in London,
Speaker 1: and she replaced them with ones that would be more
Speaker 1: acceptable to a more loyalist audience. So it's really reasonable
Speaker 1: to conclude that she understood how she was being constrained
Speaker 1: by the world that she was living in, and she
Speaker 1: was crafting poems to be well received with in that world.
Speaker 1: So instead of writing poems explicitly about the evils of slavery.
Speaker 1: She wrote poems about loving liberty and freedom, which, within
Speaker 1: her overwhelmingly white audience and the colonies, would be read
Speaker 1: as patriotism instead of as criticism. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us today for this Saturday classic. If you
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