Phillis Wheatley – A Revolutionary Poet

/ historicallywoman

‘Phillis Wheatley’, as we know her today, did not exist until 1761, roughly eight years after her birth. She was taken from her home in West Africa, likely modern-day Senegal, and transported to Boston, where she was bought by John Wheatley as a personal servant for his wife, Susanna. They named her for the ship that brought her to America, The Phillis, and, as was custom for slaves, she took the Wheatleys’ surname. Her birth name was forgotten, and not even her exact birth date has survived. 

Yet, the fact that we know of Phillis Wheatley at all makes her life something of an anomaly. Hers was an existence full of tragedy and hardship – even after she was freed, she struggled to make a living and eventually died in poverty, alone. Through all of it, however, she was able to make her mark on the world, and would become the first African-American, the first US slave, and the second woman to have published a book of poetry.

Wheatley was treated unusually well for a slave. John Wheatley was known as a progressive in Boston – though it must be noted that this is distinctly for the time, as he was still a slave owner. Her talents were quickly noted by the household, and so, under the tutelage of Susanna Wheatley and her children, she was given an extensive education in theology, English, Latin, and Greek. By the age of 12, she could read the classics in their original language and she impressed scholars by translating a passage by Ovid.

Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, possibly by Scipio Moorhead

Wheatley began writing poems in her early teens, drawing on influences such as Alexander Pope. The Wheatleys excused her from many (though not all) of her household duties and often kept her apart from the other slaves ostensibly to encourage her abilities, though a secondary purpose was to shape her to their liking. Wheatley was already a shy child; this, combined with her life in the household prevented her from being a threat to the Wheatley family and the white community at large.

A common scholarly critique of Wheatley’s poetry is that there is little in the way of identity – Wheatley rarely wrote on the subject of slavery, and even when she did, it was in vague terms. Some of her poetry even continues the image of Africa as an unholy land, but Wheatley’s upbringing must be taken into account for a more complete understanding of her perspective.

She was stolen from her home at a very young age and subsequently raised on Christian values. Her separation from other slaves and her attendance at white social events would have obscured her view of the relationship between black and white people. Furthermore, her earliest work was written when she was still a slave; it is, then, somewhat unsurprising that she would write the way she did.

Her first published poem was ‘On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin’ (1767) about two men who almost drowned at sea, which appeared in the Newport Mercury. Fame quickly followed, with the publication of ‘An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine…George Whitefield’ (1770), a tribute to a preacher whom she may have known personally. It was distributed as a pamphlet in Boston, Philadelphia, and Newport, and was published alongside the sermon at Whitefield’s funeral in London.

By eighteen, Wheatley had compiled 28 poems which she and Susanna Wheatley attempted to get published in Boston newspapers. They were, however, unwilling to support Wheatley due to her status as a black woman and a slave, so she travelled to London with the Wheatleys’ son, Nathaniel, in 1771. British high society became fascinated with her, and Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, subsidised the publication of Wheatley’s poems. Her book, ‘Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral’, appeared in London in the summer of 1773.

As a preface to the book, there is a signed attestation to the fact that Wheatley was indeed the author of her poems. Some Bostonians had doubted that a slave was writing such ‘excellent’ poetry, so Wheatley had to defend herself in court in front of seventeen men, including John Hancock. There has been some debate amongst scholars whether this meeting ever took place, but the attestation is proof of Wheatley’s need to dispel doubts about her skill.

After the publication of her book, Wheatley was freed, partially at the behest of her friends in England. She continued writing, more than a third of her poems elegies to noted people, friends, and sometimes even strangers.

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, /May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train

Phillis Wheatley in her poem, ‘On Being Brought from Africa To America’.

A staunch supporter of American independence, she also published several works on this topic, and dedicated several to future president, George Washington. She sent one such poem to the then general, prompting a meeting between the two in March 1776.

Her good fortune was not to last. Though freed from slavery, her service to the Wheatleys had provided her with a sort of safety net – her position in the household meant she had been protected from the harsh realities of slaves’ lives and the economic struggles of black people at the time. Wheatley’s emancipation was quickly followed by the deaths of both Susanna and John Wheatley (1774 and 1778 respectively). 

Statue of Wheatley at the Boston Women’s Memorial, unveiled 2003

On April 1, 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a free black man who worked as a grocer. Historical record shows him as an intelligent gentleman who practised law, possibly as a freelancer. Peters’ aspirations were great, but he was unable to find work as economic conditions during the Revolutionary War were particularly hard on free black people. The couple fell quickly into poverty, and were allegedly further devastated by the deaths of their children, though evidence of any children is scant.

Wheatley was forced to find work as a scullery maid in a boarding house, which was hard on her already frail health. Margaretta Matilda Odell recalled that: “The woman who had stood honored and respected in the presence of the wise and good … was numbering the last hours of life in a state of the most abject misery, surrounded by all the emblems of a squalid poverty!”

Phillis Wheatley died on 5th December, 1784, aged around 31. Her infant son died shortly after, and the two were buried together. She was alone and uncared for at the time of her death, her husband being incarcerated, and her earlier fame all but gone, her patrons refusing to support a second book of poetry. In the years after her death, Wheatley fell further and further into obscurity, and it is only recently that her life has begun to be uncovered once more.

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