 Phillis
Wheatley
First African-American Writer of Consequence
c. 1753 - 1784
By Patricia Chadwick
patti@historyswomen.com
Phillis Wheatley was a highly educated woman and
a gifted poet of the late eighteenth century.
While it was unusual for woman of that era to be
highly educated, it was almost unheard of for a
slave to be able to read and write. Regardless,
Phillis Wheatley was a slave girl whose
education helped to her to become a recognized
and published poet in the late 1700s.
Born in Senegal, West Africa c.
1753, Phillis was kidnapped from her native land
and brought to America on a slave ship in 1761.
That same year she was sold at a slave auction
in Boston to the family of John Wheatley, a
prominent Boston merchant. The Wheatley family
treated Phillis with love and respect and
allowed her unusual privileges for a slave,
giving her the opportunity to learn to read and
write.
When Phillis was still quite
young, the Wheatleys recognized in her signs of
a remarkable intelligence. She became the charge
of the young Mary Wheatley, who, at age fifteen,
had a thirst for knowledge and was one of the
most highly educated women in Boston at the
time. Mary took it upon herself to teach Phillis
English and to educate her. Mary also enlisted
the help of her twin brother, Nathaniel, to
teach Phillis Latin. The family was also careful
to teach Phillis the tenants of the Christian
faith and she came to know the Bible well,
becoming a Christian at a young age.
Phillis began to write poetry at
the age of fourteen. Her first published work
was a poem entitled On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin
published in 1767 in the Newport Mercury. This
was followed by a poem on the death of the
Reverend George Whitefield, the great
evangelical preacher who frequently toured New
England titled An Elegiac Poem on the Death of
the Celebrated Divine.George Whitefield. This
poem, appearing in at least ten separate
editions in major cities such as Boston,
Newport, and Philadelphi, gave Phillis instant
recognition and she became a sensation in Boston
in the 1770s. The poem also appeared in London
and she was contacted by Selina Hastings,
Countess of Huntingdon, an intimate friend of
Rev. Whitefield's. The Countess invited Phillis
to London to assist her in publishing her poems.
Her first book of poems was published in 1773
and Phillis was lauded as England's most
acclaimed poet. Her connection with Selina
Hastings helped Phillis' reputation to spread
across Europe and in America as well.
In 1773, upon hearing of the ill
health of Mrs Wheatley and that Mary expecting
another child, Phillis returned home to help
take care of her beloved family. Mrs. Wheatley
improved for a while after Phillis' return, but
she relapsed and died on March 3, 1774, leaving
the Wheatley family devastated by the loss. Not
long after, John Wheatley died and , since he
was heavily in debt, the house was sold, but
Phillis found that she was a free woman.
In 1778 Phillis married John
Peters, a free black man, who had recently
opended a grocery in Boston. She had two
children Johnny, who died as a young boy, and
Susan. In 1784, her husband was thrown into
debtors prison leaving Phillis to make a living
for herself and her daughter. She tried in vain
to publish more of her poems to support her
family, but was rejected at every turn because
of her race. Finally, she took on a job as a
scrub woman in a boarding house, but her health
soon began to deteriorate. Despite her
ill-health and dire circumstances, Phillis
continued to write poetry. Sadly, she could not
find a publisher that was willing to publish her
work, mostly due to the struggling
post-revolutionary economy. In 1784, however,
she was able to publish several poems under the
name of Phillis Peters. Never regaining her
health, Phillis Wheatley died in poverty on
December 5, 1784.
Phillis Wheatley's literary
gifts and godliness were an outstanding example
to her audience of the human capacity to
overcome circumstances of birth. Though Phillis
went through many hard times, her poetry didn't
focus on injustice, but on positive themes, such
as the salvation message of Christianity,
morality, and piety. Her poems became popular
again in the nineteenth century when they were
reissued in the 1830s by Abolitionists who were
eager to prove the human potential of blacks.
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