Editing Phillis Wheatley

{{Short description|African-born American poet (1753–1784)}}
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{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name          = Phillis Wheatley
| image         = Phillis Wheatley frontispiece.jpg
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = ''[[Portrait of Phillis Wheatley]]'', attributed by some scholars to [[Scipio Moorhead]]
| pseudonym     = 
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{Circa|1753}}
| birth_place   = [[West Africa]]
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1784|12|05|1753|05|08}}
| death_place   = {{nowrap|[[Boston]], [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], [[British America]]}}
| resting_place = 
| occupation    = Poet
| language      = English
| citizenship   = 
| period        = [[American Revolution]]
| genre         = 
| subject       = 
| movement      = 
| notableworks  = ''[[Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral]]'' (1773)
| spouse        = John Peters
| children      = Uncertain. Up to three with none surviving past early childhood.<ref name="Phillis Wheatley">{{cite web|title=Phillis Wheatley|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=August 31, 2018}}</ref>
| relatives     = 
| awards        = 
| signature     = 
| signature_alt = 
| portaldisp    = 
}}

'''Phillis Wheatley Peters''', also spelled '''Phyllis''' and '''Wheatly''' ({{circa|1753}} – December 5, 1784), was an American author who is considered the [[List of African-American firsts|first African-American author of a published book of poetry]].<ref name=Trials5>[[Henry Louis Gates Jr.|Gates Jr., Henry Louis]], ''Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers'', Basic Civitas Books, 2010, p. 5. {{ISBN|9780465018505}} The core of this work is available online as delivered by Gates in his March 26, 2002 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities "The Case of a Slave Poet, A Forgotten Historic Episode," https://usinfo.org/usia/usinfo.state.gov/usa/blackhis/homepage.htm.</ref><ref>For example, in the name of the [[Phyllis Wheatley YWCA]] in Washington, D.C., where "Phyllis" is etched into the name over its front door (as can be seen in [http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Photos/83003532.pdf photos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915222434/http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Photos/83003532.pdf |date=September 15, 2016 }} and corresponding [http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/83003532.pdf text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915231951/http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/83003532.pdf |date=September 15, 2016 }} for that building's National Register nomination).</ref> Born in [[West Africa]], she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of [[Boston]]. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.

On a 1773 trip to London with the Wheatleys' son, seeking publication of her work, Wheatley met prominent people who became her patrons. The publication in [[London]] of her ''[[Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral]]'' on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Prominent figures, such as [[George Washington]], praised her work.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Meehan|first1=Adam|author2=J. L. Bell|title=Phillis Wheatley · George Washington's Mount Vernon|publisher=[[Mount Vernon|George Washington's Mount Vernon]]|access-date=August 28, 2017|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/phillis-wheatley|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829115522/http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/phillis-wheatley|archive-date=August 29, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> A few years later, African-American poet [[Jupiter Hammon]] praised her work in a poem of his own.

Wheatley was [[emancipated]] by the Wheatleys shortly after the publication of her book of poems.<ref name="Women 2000, page 123">{{cite book |author-link=Hilda L. Smith |last1=Smith |first1=Hilda L. |first2=Berenice A. |last2=Carroll |author-link2=Berenice A. Carroll |date=2000 |title=Women's Political and Social Thought: An Anthology |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=123 |isbn=978-0-253-33758-0}}</ref> The Wheatleys died soon thereafter and Phillis Wheatley married John Peters, a poor grocer. They lost three children, who all died young. Wheatley-Peters died in poverty and obscurity at the age of 31.

==Early life==
[[Image:Old South Meetinghouse BW.jpg|thumb|Phillis Wheatley's church, [[Old South Meeting House]]<ref name=cromwell-1994>{{Citation |publisher = University of Arkansas Press |title = The Other Brahmins: Boston's Black Upper Class, 1750–1950 |first = Adelaide M. |last = Cromwell |author-link = Adelaide M. Cromwell |date = 1994 |ol= 1430545M }}</ref>]]
Although the date and place of her birth are not documented, scholars believe that Wheatley was born in 1753 in [[West Africa]], most likely in present-day [[Gambia]] or [[Senegal]].<ref>Carretta, Vincent. ''Complete Writings by Phillis Wheatley,'' New York: Penguin Books, 2001.</ref> She 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,<ref>Odell, Margaretta M. ''Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave,'' Boston: Geo. W. Light, 1834.</ref> on a [[slave ship]] called ''The Phillis''.<ref name=Doak>Doak, Robin S. ''Phillis Wheatley: Slave and Poet,'' Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2007.{{ISBN?}}</ref> The vessel was owned by Timothy Fitch and captained by Peter Gwinn.<ref name=Doak />

On arrival in Boston, Wheatley was bought by the wealthy Boston merchant and tailor John Wheatley as a slave for his wife Susanna. The Wheatleys named her Phillis, after the ship that had transported her to North America. She was given their last name of Wheatley, as was a common custom if any surname was used for enslaved people.<ref>{{cite journal
|journal=[[American Archivist]]
|title=A Perspective on Indexing Slaves' Names
|first=David E.
|last=Paterson
|volume=64
|date=Spring–Summer 2001
|pages=132–142|doi=10.17723/aarc.64.1.th18g8t6282h4283
|doi-access=free
}}</ref>

The Wheatleys' 18-year-old daughter, Mary, was 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 Phillis an unprecedented education for an enslaved person, and one unusual for a woman of any race at the time. By the age of 12, Phillis was reading Greek and Latin classics in their original languages, as well as difficult passages from the Bible.<ref>See Barbara Salmon, ''In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America'' (1985), p.5, and "Phillis Wheatley, in ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phillis-Wheaatley.</ref> At the age of 14, she wrote her first poem, "To the University of Cambridge [Harvard], in New England".<ref name=Brown>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Sterling |author-link1=Sterling Allen Brown |title=Negro Poetry and Drama|date=1937|publisher=Westphalia Press|location=Washington, DC|isbn=1935907549}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral|last = Wheatley|first = Phillis|publisher = W.H. Lawrence|year = 1887|location = Denver, Colorado|pages = [https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea_0/page/120 120]|url = https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea_0|access-date = February 29, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161115224718/https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea_0|archive-date = November 15, 2016|url-status = live}}</ref>

Recognizing her literary ability, the Wheatley family supported Phillis's education and left household labor to their other domestic enslaved workers. The Wheatleys often exhibited Phillis's abilities to friends and family. Strongly influenced by her readings of the works of [[Alexander Pope]], [[John Milton]], [[Homer]], [[Horace]] and [[Virgil]], Phillis began to write poetry.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Deborah|title=Freedom on My Mind|date=2015|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|location=Boston/New York|isbn=978-0-312-64883-1|page=145}}</ref>

==Later life==
In 1773, at the age of 20, Phillis accompanied Nathaniel Wheatley to London in part for her health (she suffered from chronic asthma),<ref name="Phillis Wheatley"/> but primarily because Susanna believed Phillis would have a better chance of publishing her book of poems there than in the colonies.<ref>{{cite book|title=Portraits of American Women: From Settlement to the Present|url=https://archive.org/details/portraitsofameri00gjba_0|url-access=registration|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/portraitsofameri00gjba_0/page/106 106]|first=Charles |last=Scruggs|chapter=Phillis Wheatley|isbn=978-0-19-512048-6|editor-first=G. J. |editor-last=Barker-Benfield}}</ref> Phillis had an audience with [[Frederick Bull (Lord Mayor of London)|Frederick Bull]], who was the [[Lord Mayor of London]], and other prominent members of British society. (An audience with King [[George III]] was arranged, but Phillis had returned to Boston before it could take place.) [[Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon]], became interested in the talented young African woman and subsidized the publication of Wheatley's volume of poems, which appeared in London in the summer of 1773. As Hastings was ill, the two never met.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVl_Huh7FbMC |title=Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England |year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York |first1=Catherine |last1=Adams |first2=Elizabeth H. |last2=Pleck |isbn=978-0-19-538908-1}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2020}}

After Phillis's book was published, by November 1773, the Wheatleys [[manumission|manumitted]] Phillis. Susanna Wheatley died in the spring of 1774, and John in 1778. Shortly after, Phillis met and married John Peters, an impoverished [[free people of color|free black]] grocer. They lived in poor conditions and two of their babies died.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Shining Thread of Hope|year=2009|publisher=Random House|location=New York|page=26 |first1=Darlene Clark |last1=Hine |first2=Kathleen |last2=Thompson|author-link=Darlene Clark Hine|author2-link=Kathleen Thompson |isbn=978-0-7679-0110-9}}</ref>

John was improvident and was imprisoned for debt in 1784. With a sickly infant son to provide for, Phillis became a [[scullery maid]] at a boarding house, doing work she had never done before; she developed [[pneumonia]]<ref name="wheatley.org">{{Cite web |title=Later Life and Death |url=http://www.phillis-wheatley.org/later-life-death/ |access-date=2023-09-21 |website=www.phillis-wheatley.org}}</ref> and died on December 5, 1784, at the age of 31,<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers, Volume 1|page=611|chapter=Phillis Wheatley|editor=Page|year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-34123-6}}</ref> after giving birth to a daughter, who died the same day as her.<ref name="wheatley.org"/>

===Other writings===
Wheatley wrote a letter to Reverend [[Samson Occom]], commending him on his ideas and beliefs stating that enslaved people should be given their natural-born rights in America.<ref>See Saundra O'Neale, "Challenge to Wheatley's Critics: 'There Was no Other Game in Town,' ''Journal of Negro Education'', vol. 54, 500, 503 (1985).</ref> Wheatley also exchanged letters with the British philanthropist [[John Thornton (philanthropist)|John Thornton]], who discussed Wheatley and her poetry in correspondence with [[John Newton]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bilbro|first1=Jeffrey|title=Who are lost and how they're found: redemption and theodicy in Wheatley, Newton, and Cowper|journal=[[Early American Literature]]|date=Fall 2012|volume=47|issue=3|pages=570–575|doi=10.1353/eal.2012.0054|s2cid=162875678}}</ref> Through her letter writing, Wheatley was able to express her thoughts, comments and concerns to others.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|title=Freedom On My Mind|date=2015|pages=146–147}}{{ISBN?}}</ref>

In 1775, she sent a copy of a poem entitled "To His Excellency, George Washington" to the then-military general. The following year, Washington invited Wheatley to visit him at his headquarters in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Grizzard|first=Frank E. |author-link=Frank E. Grizzard Jr. |title=George Washington: A Biographical Companion|year=2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Greenwood, CT|page=349}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> [[Thomas Paine]] republished the poem in ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'' in April 1776.<ref>{{cite book|title=Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century|year=2013|publisher=University of Kentucky Press|location=Louisville|page=70|editor-first=Vincent |editor-last=Carretta |isbn=978-0-8131-4408-5}}</ref>

In 1779, Wheatley issued a proposal for a second volume of poems but was unable to publish it because she had lost her patrons after her emancipation; publication of books was often based on gaining subscriptions for guaranteed sales beforehand. The [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783) was also a factor. However, some of her poems that were to be included in the second volume were later published in pamphlets and newspapers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers, Volume 1|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|page=610|chapter=Phillis Wheatley |editor-first=Yolanda Williams |editor-last=Page |isbn=978-0-313-34123-6}}</ref>

==Poetry==
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage =[[File:On being brought from africa to america.jpg|210px]]
 | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wM8Jf0TdXo "On Being Brought from Africa To America by Phillis Wheatley; Narrated by Teyuna T Darris"], 0:47, July 8, 2015, GoodPoetry.org.<ref name="smarth">{{cite web |url =https://letterpile.com/poetry/Analysis-of-Poem-On-Being-Brought-From-Africa-to-America-by-Phillis-Wheatley |title =Analysis of Poem 'On Being Brought From Africa to America' by Phillis Wheatley |first=Andrew |last=Spacey |work =LetterPile |date =2017-03-12 |access-date =June 17, 2017 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20171013064832/https://letterpile.com/poetry/Analysis-of-Poem-On-Being-Brought-From-Africa-to-America-by-Phillis-Wheatley | archive-date =October 13, 2017 | url-status =live }}</ref> }}

In 1768, Wheatley wrote "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty", in which she praised [[King George III]] for repealing the [[Stamp Act]].<ref name="Women 2000, page 123"/> But while discussing the idea of freedom, Wheatley was able subtly to raise the idea of freedom for enslaved subjects of the king as well:

{{blockquote|<poem>
May George, beloved by all the nations round,
Live with heav’ns choicest constant blessings crown’d!
Great God, direct, and guard him from on high,
And from his head let ev’ry evil fly!
And may each clime with equal gladness see
A monarch’s smile can set his subjects free!<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/409/pg409-images.html#link2H_4_0007 POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL By Phillis Wheatley]</ref>
</poem>}}

As the [[American Revolution]] gained strength, Wheatley's writing turned to themes that expressed ideas of the rebellious colonists.

In 1770, she wrote a poetic tribute to the evangelist [[George Whitefield]]. Her poetry expressed Christian themes, and many poems were dedicated to famous figures. Over one-third consist of [[Elegy|elegies]], the remainder being on religious, classical and abstract themes.<ref>[http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/treasures/american/wheatley.html Phillis Wheatley] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131100804/http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/treasures/american/wheatley.html |date=January 31, 2011 }} page, comments on ''[[Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral]]'', University of Delaware. Retrieved October 5, 2007.</ref> She seldom referred to her own life in her poems. One example of a poem on slavery is "On being brought from Africa to America":<ref>[http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Wheatley/brought.html "On Being Brought from Africa to America".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130716142457/http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Wheatley/brought.html |date=July 16, 2013 }}, Web Texts, Virginia Commonwealth University</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>
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.
</poem>}}

[[File:Houghton AC85.Aℓ245.Zy773w - Wheatley, title page.jpg|thumb|''[[Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral]]'', 1773]]

Many colonists found it difficult to believe that an African slave was writing "excellent" poetry. Wheatley had to defend her authorship of her poetry in court in 1772.<ref name="Africana 1999">{{cite book |editor-first1=Henry Louis Jr. |editor-last1=Gates |editor-link1=Henry Louis Gates Jr. |editor-first2=Anthony |editor-last2=Appiah |editor-link2=Kwame Anthony Appiah |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |publisher=Basic Civitas Books |date=1999 |page=1171 |isbn=978-0-465-00071-5}} Gates tells the story of this "trial" at length in his book and lecture cited in note 2 above.</ref><ref>[[Ellis Cashmore]], review of ''The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature'', Nellie Y. McKay and [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.|Henry Louis Gates]], eds, ''New Statesman'', April 25, 1997.</ref> She was examined by a group of Boston luminaries, including [[John Erving]], Reverend [[Charles Chauncy (1705–1787)|Charles Chauncey]], [[John Hancock]], [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]], the governor of Massachusetts, and his lieutenant governor [[Andrew Oliver]]. They concluded she had written the poems ascribed to her and signed an [[:wiktionary:attestation|attestation]], which was included in the preface of her book of collected works: ''[[Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral]],'' published in London in 1773. Publishers in Boston had declined to publish it, but her work was of great interest to influential people in London.

There, [[Selina, Countess of Huntingdon]] and the [[Earl of Dartmouth]] acted as patrons to help Wheatley gain publication. Her poetry received comment in ''[[The London Magazine]]'' in 1773, which published her poem "Hymn to the Morning" as a specimen of her work, writing: "[t]hese poems display no astonishing power of genius; but when we consider them as the productions of a young untutored African, who wrote them after six months casual study of the English language and of writing, we cannot suppress our admiration of talents so vigorous and lively."<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021278604;view=1up;seq=520|title=The London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer 1773.|website=HathiTrust|pages=4 v|language=en|access-date=August 2, 2018}}</ref> ''Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral'' was printed in 11 editions until 1816.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Margaret Busby |last=Busby |first=Margaret |chapter=Phillis Wheatley |title=[[Daughters of Africa]] |location=London |publisher=Jonathan Cape |date=1992 |page=18 |isbn=978-0-224-03592-7}}</ref>

In 1778, the African-American poet [[Jupiter Hammon]] wrote an [[ode]] to Wheatley ("An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley").<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52292/an-address-to-miss-phillis-wheatley|title=An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley |first=Jupiter |last=Hammon |author-link=Jupiter Hammon |website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=March 22, 2021}}</ref> His master Lloyd had temporarily moved with his slaves to [[Hartford, Connecticut]], during the Revolutionary War. Hammon thought that Wheatley had succumbed to what he believed were pagan influences in her writing, and so his "Address" consisted of 21 rhyming quatrains, each accompanied by a related Bible verse, that he thought would compel Wheatley to return to a Christian path in life.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americannational09garr/page/950/mode/2up?q=jupiter |last=Faherty |first=Duncan F. |chapter=Hammon, Jupiter |title=American National Biography Online |year=2000 |chapter-url-access=registration |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1600706}}</ref>

In 1838, Boston-based publisher and abolitionist [[Isaac Knapp]] published a collection of Wheatley's poetry, along with that of enslaved North Carolina poet [[George Moses Horton]], under the title ''Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, A Native African and a Slave. Also, Poems by a Slave''.<ref>Cavitch, Max. ''American Elegy: The Poetry of Mourning from the Puritans to Whitman''. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007: 193. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4892-4}}.</ref> Wheatley's memoir was earlier published in 1834 by Geo W. Light but did not include poems by Horton.

[[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:<blockquote>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 {{sic}} but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism.<ref>For the written text, see "Jefferson's 'Notes on the State of Virginia,' https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h490t.html</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Jefferson|first=Thomas|date=1781|title=Notes on the State of Virginia|url=https://www.pbs.org/jefferson/archives/documents/frame_ih198156.htm|website=PBS|page=234}}</ref></blockquote> 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.<ref> Gates, note 2 above, pp.23-25.</ref>

==Style, structure, and influences on poetry==
Wheatley believed that the power of poetry was immeasurable.<ref name="jstor.org">Shields, John C. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409174457/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 |date=April 9, 2016 }}, ''American Literature'' 52.1 (1980): 97–111. Retrieved November 2, 2009, p. 101.</ref> John C. Shields, noting that her poetry did not simply reflect the literature she read but was based on her personal ideas and beliefs, writes:
<blockquote>Wheatley had more in mind than simple conformity. It will be shown later that her allusions to the sun god and to the goddess of the morn, always appearing as they do here in close association with her quest for poetic inspiration, are of central importance to her.</blockquote>
This poem is arranged into three stanzas of four lines in [[iambic tetrameter]], followed by a concluding couplet in [[iambic pentameter]]. The [[rhyme scheme]] is ABABCC.<ref name="jstor.org"/><ref name="Shields, John C 1980 page 100">Shields, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409174457/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 |date=April 9, 2016 }}, ''American Literature'' 52.1 (1980), p. 100.</ref> Shields sums up her writing as being "contemplative and reflective rather than brilliant and shimmering."<ref name="Shields, John C 1980 page 100"/>

She repeated three primary elements: Christianity, classicism and hierophantic solar worship.<ref name="Shields, John C 1980 page 103">Shields, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409174457/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 |date=April 9, 2016 }}, ''American Literature'' 52.1 (1980), p. 103.</ref> The hierophantic solar worship was part of what she brought with her from Africa; the worship of sun gods is expressed as part of her African culture, which may be why she used so many different words for the sun.  For instance, she uses Aurora eight times, "Apollo seven, Phoebus twelve, and Sol twice."<ref name="Shields, John C 1980 page 103"/> Shields believes that the word "light" is significant to her as it marks her African history, a past that she has left physically behind.<ref name="Shields, John C 1980 page 103"/> He notes that Sun is a homonym for Son, and that Wheatley intended a double reference to Christ.<ref name="Shields, John C 1980 page 103"/> Wheatley also refers to "heav'nly muse" in two of her poems: "To a Clergy Man on the Death of his Lady" and "Isaiah LXIII," signifying her idea of the Christian deity.<ref>Shields, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409174457/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 |date=April 9, 2016 }}, ''American Literature'' 52.1 (1980), p. 102.</ref>

Classical allusions are prominent in Wheatley's poetry, which Shields argues set her work apart from that of her contemporaries: "Wheatley's use of classicism distinguishes her work as original and unique and deserves extended treatment."<ref>Shields, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 "Phillis Wheatley's Use of Classicism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409174457/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2925190?seq=5 |date=April 9, 2016 }}, ''American Literature'' 52.1 (1980), p. 98.</ref> Particularly extended engagement with the Classics can be found in the poem "To Maecenas", where Wheatley uses references to [[Maecenas]] to depict the relationship between her and her own patrons,<ref name="Greenwood">{{cite book |last=Greenwood |first=Emily |author-link=Emily Greenwood |editor-last1=Hall |editor-first1=Edith |editor-link=Edith Hall |editor-last2=McConnell |editor-first2=Justine |editor-last3=Alston |editor-first3=Richard |title=Ancient Slavery and Abolition. From Hobbes to Hollywood |publisher=OUP |date=January 1, 2011 |pages=153–180 |chapter=Chapter 6: The Politics of Classicism in the Poetry of Phillis Wheatley |isbn=9780199574674}}</ref>{{rp|168–728}} as well as making reference to [[Achilles]] and [[Patroclus]], [[Homer]] and [[Virgil]].<ref name="Greenwood" />{{rp|167}} At the same time, Wheatley indicates to the complexity of her relationship with Classical texts by pointing to the sole example of [[Terence]] as an ancestor for her works: 
{{Poem quote|The happier Terence all the choir inspir'd,
His soul replenish'd, and his bosom fir'd;
But say, ye Muses, why this partial grace,
To one alone of Afric's sable race;<ref name="Greenwood" />{{rp|168}}}}
While some scholars have argued that Wheatley's allusions to classical material are based on the reading of other [[neoclassicism|neoclassical]] poetry (such as the works of [[Alexander Pope]]), [[Emily Greenwood]] has demonstrated that Wheatley's work demonstrates persistent linguistic engagement with Latin texts, suggesting good familiarity with the ancient works themselves.<ref name="Greenwood" />{{rp|159–162}} Both Shields and Greenwood have argued that Wheatley's use of classical imagery and ideas was designed to deliver "subversive" messages to her educated, majority white audience, and argue for the freedom of Wheatley herself and other enslaved people.<ref name="Greenwood" />{{rp|170–172}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shields |first1=John C. |title=Phillis Wheatley's Subversion of Classical Stylistics |journal=Style |date=1993 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=252–270 |jstor=42946040 |issn=0039-4238 }}</ref>{{rp|252}}

== Scholarly critique ==
Black literary scholars from the 1960s to the present in critiquing Wheatley's writing have noted the absence in it of her sense of identity as a black enslaved person.<ref name="Reising-1996">{{Cite book|last=Reising, Russell.|title=Loose ends : closure and crisis in the American social text|date=1996|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-1891-1|location=Durham, N.C.|oclc=34875703}}</ref><ref>Matson, R. Lynn. "Phillis Wheatley--Soul Sister?." Phylon 33, no. 3 (1972): 222-230. At the same time, Matson notes that Wheatley was hindered by her tenuous social position and concludes that if Wheatley "is not exactly a soul sister, she is certainly a distant relative." Id. at 230.</ref> A number of black literary scholars have viewed her work—and its widespread admiration—as a barrier to the development of black people during her time and as a prime example of [[Uncle Tom syndrome]], believing that Wheatley's lack of awareness of her condition of enslavement furthers this syndrome among descendants of Africans in the Americas.<ref name="Reising-1996" /> However, others, more recently, have argued on her behalf. O'Neal notes that Wheatley "was a strong force among contemporary abolitionist writers, and that, through the use of Biblical imagery, she incorporated anti-slavery statements in her work within the confines of her era and her position as a slave."<ref>See O'Neal, note 20 above at p. 500. O'Neal goes on note that Wheatley's critics "do not suggest what alternative tactics could be expected from writers who were also slaves. In fact, no historical records as yet have shown a slave of the Revolutionary era who made--by the measure of today's standard--militant, outspoken anti-slavery statments in America's public media." Id. at 510.</ref> Chernoh Sesay, Jr. sees a trend towards a more balanced view of Wheatley, looking at her "not in twentieth century terms, but instead according to the conditions of the eighteenth century,"<ref>Chernoh Sesay, Jr., "Remembering Phillis Wheatley," ''Black Perspectives'' (June 26, 2016), https://aaihs.org/remembering-phillis-wheatley</ref> and Henry Louis Gates has argued for her rehabilitation, asking "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?"<ref>Gates, note 2 above pp. 87-88.</ref>  

Some scholars thought Wheatley's perspective came from her upbringing. Writing in 1974, Eleanor Smith argued that the Wheatley family took interest in her at a young age because of her timid and submissive nature.<ref name="Smith-1974">{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Eleanor|date=1974|title=Phillis Wheatley: A Black Perspective|journal=The Journal of Negro Education |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=401–407 |doi=10.2307/2966531|jstor=2966531}}</ref> Using this to their advantage, the Wheatley family was able to mold and shape her into a person of their liking.<ref name="Smith-1974" /> The family separated her from other slaves in the home and she was prevented from doing anything other than very light housework.<ref name="Smith-1974" />  This shaping prevented Phillis from ever becoming a threat to the Wheatley family or other people from the white community.<ref name="Smith-1974" />  As a result, Phillis was allowed to attend white social events and this created a misconception of the relationship between black and white people for her.<ref name="Smith-1974" />

The matter of Wheatley's biography, "a white woman's memoir", has been a subject of investigation. In 2020, American poet [[Honorée Fanonne Jeffers]] published her ''The Age of Phillis'', based on the understanding that Margaretta Matilda Odell's account of Wheatley's life portrayed Wheatley inaccurately, and as a character in a sentimental novel; the poems by Jeffers attempt to fill in the gaps and recreate a more realistic portrait of Wheatley.<ref name=winkler>{{cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-phillis-wheatley-was-recovered-through-history |title=How Phillis Wheatley Was Recovered Through History: For decades, a white woman's memoir shaped our understanding of America's first Black poet. Does a new book change the story? |first=Elizabeth |last=Winkler |date=July 30, 2020 |accessdate=February 11, 2021 |newspaper=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref>

==Legacy and honors==
[[File:Phyllis Wheatley YWCA - Washington, D.C..jpg|thumb|[[Phyllis Wheatley YWCA]] in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C.]]
With the 1773 publication of Wheatley's book ''Poems on Various Subjects,'' she "became the most famous African on the face of the earth."<ref name="Phillis Wheatley page 33">[[Henry Louis Gates Jr.|Gates]], ''The Trials of Phillis Wheatley'', p. 33.</ref> [[Voltaire]] stated in a letter to a friend that Wheatley had proved that black people could write poetry. [[John Paul Jones]] asked a fellow officer to deliver some of his personal writings to "Phillis the African favorite of the Nine (muses) and Apollo."<ref name="Phillis Wheatley page 33"/> She was honored by many of America's founding fathers, including [[George Washington]], who wrote to her (after she wrote a poem in his honor) that "the style and manner [of your poetry] exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical Talents."<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw040306)) "George Washington to Phillis Wheatley, February 28, 1776"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208075845/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem%2Fmgw%3A%40field%28DOCID+%40lit%28gw040306%29%29 |date=February 8, 2019 }}. The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741–1799.</ref>

Critics consider her work fundamental to the genre of [[African-American literature]],<ref name=Trials5 /> and she is honored as the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry and the first to make a living from her writing.<ref name="lkwdpl.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/whea-phi.htm |title=Lakewood Public Library. |access-date=March 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328150242/http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/whea-phi.htm |archive-date=March 28, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

*In 2002, the scholar [[Molefi Kete Asante]] listed Phillis Wheatley as one of his ''[[100 Greatest African Americans]]''.<ref>Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). ''100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia,'' New York: Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|1-57392-963-8}}.</ref>
*Wheatley is featured, along with [[Abigail Adams]] and [[Lucy Stone]], in the [[Boston Women's Memorial]], a 2003 sculpture on [[Commonwealth Avenue (Boston)|Commonwealth Avenue]] in Boston, Massachusetts.<!--[[File:Boston Women's Memorial.jpg|Boston Women's Memorial]]-->
*In 2012, [[Robert Morris University]] named the new building for their School of Communications and Information Sciences after Phillis Wheatley.<ref>Linda Wilson Fuoco, [http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-west/dual-success-robert-morris-opens-building-reaches-fundraising-goal-655067/ "Dual success: Robert Morris opens building, reaches fundraising goal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113172438/http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-west/dual-success-robert-morris-opens-building-reaches-fundraising-goal-655067/ |date=November 13, 2012 }}, ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', September 27, 2012.</ref>
*Wheatley Hall at [[UMass Boston]] is named for Phillis Wheatley.<ref>{{cite web|title=UMass Boston Professors to Discuss Phillis Wheatley Saturday Before Theater Performance|first=Colleen|last=Locke|date=February 11, 2016|url=https://www.umb.edu/news/detail/umass_boston_professors_to_discuss_phillis_wheatley_saturday|website=UMass Boston News|access-date=March 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308194725/https://www.umb.edu/news/detail/umass_boston_professors_to_discuss_phillis_wheatley_saturday|archive-date=March 8, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1892 a Phyllis Wheatley Circle was formed in [[Greenville, Mississippi]].<ref name=Wheatley>{{cite book
|accessdate=June 1, 2021
|title=Historical Records of Conventions of 1895–96 of the Colored Women of America
|year=1902
|url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/ibwells-0009-006.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/ibwells-0009-006.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|72}} and in 1896 the Phyllis Wheatley Circle.<ref name=Wheatley/>{{rp|108}}

She is commemorated on the [[Boston Women's Heritage Trail]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Phillis Wheatley|url=http://bwht.org/phillis-wheatley/|website=Boston Women's Heritage Trail|access-date=January 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106022050/http://bwht.org/phillis-wheatley/|archive-date=January 6, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>  The [[Phyllis Wheatley YWCA]] in Washington, D.C., and the [[Wheatley High School (Houston)|Phillis Wheatley High School]] in [[Houston, Texas]], are named for her, as are the [[Phyllis Wheatley School]] in Apopka, Florida, and the historic Phillis Wheatley School in [[Jensen Beach, Florida]], now the oldest building on the campus of American Legion Post 126 (Jensen Beach, Florida).  A branch of the Richland County Library in [[Columbia, South Carolina]], which offered the first library services to black citizens, is named for her. A branch of the Rochester Public Library system in [[Rochester, New York]] was named for her when it was built in 1971.<ref>{{Cite web |title=City of Rochester |url=https://cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=21474848224 |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=cityofrochester.gov}}</ref> [[Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, New Orleans]], opened in 1954 in [[Tremé]], one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in the US. The Phillis Wheatley Community Center opened in 1920 in [[Greenville, South Carolina]], and in 1924 (spelled "Phyllis") in [[Minneapolis]], Minnesota.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://philliswheatleysc.org/about-us/|title=About Us|access-date=November 23, 2020|publisher=Phillis Wheatley Community Center}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phylliswheatley.org/history/|title=History|access-date=November 23, 2020|publisher=Phyllis Wheatley Community Center}}</ref>

On July 16, 2019, at the London site where A. Bell Booksellers published Wheatley's first book in September 1773 (8 [[Aldgate]], now the location of the Dorsett City Hotel), the unveiling took place of a commemorative blue plaque honoring her, organized by the [[Nubian Jak Community Trust]] and Black History Walks.<ref>[https://seancreighton1947.wordpress.com/2019/07/05/nubian-jak-unveils-plaque-to-phillis-wheatley-16-july/ "Nubian Jak unveils plaque to Phillis Wheatley 16 July"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719190303/https://seancreighton1947.wordpress.com/2019/07/05/nubian-jak-unveils-plaque-to-phillis-wheatley-16-july/ |date=July 19, 2019 }}, History & Social Action News and Events, July 5, 2019.</ref><ref>Ladimeji, Dapo, [https://african-century.org/phyllis-wheatley-blue-plaque-unveiling-16-july-2019/ "Phyllis Wheatley – blue plaque unveiling 16 July 2019"], ''African Century Journal'', July 16, 2019.</ref>

Wheatley is the subject of a project and play by British-Nigerian writer [[Ade Solanke]] entitled ''Phillis in London'', which was showcased at the [[Greenwich]] Book Festival in June 2018.<ref>[https://www.gre.ac.uk/news/articles/public-relations/2018/students-meet-literary-world-at-greenwich-book-festival "Students meet literary world at Greenwich Book Festival"], News, University of Greenwich, June 14, 2018.</ref>  A 90-minute play by Solanke titled ''Phillis in Boston'' was presented at the [[Old South Meeting House]] in November 2023.<ref>[https://revolutionaryspaces.org/explore/upcoming-programs/phillis-in-boston/ "Revolutionary Spaces, Phillis in Boston"], Nov 1, 2023.</ref>

A 30-item collection of material related to Wheatley, including publications from her lifetime containing poems by her, was acquired by the Smithsonian's [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]] in 2023.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/arts/phillis-wheatley-smithsonian.html|title=Smithsonian Acquires Major Collection About Enslaved Poet|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first= Jennifer|last=Schuessler|date=September 26, 2023}}</ref>

Wheatley was featured in "Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition |url=https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/plan-your-visit/exhibitions/rise-up |website=Fitzwilliam Museum |publisher=University of Cambridge |date=2025 |access-date=February 17, 2025}}</ref> at the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]] of [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] during 2025, which told the stories of abolitionists such as Wheatley.

==See also==
* [[African-American literature]]
* [[AALBC.com]]
* [[Elijah McCoy]]
* [[List of 18th-century British working-class writers]]
* [[Phillis Wheatley Club]]
* [[Slave narrative]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
; Primary materials
* Wheatley, Phillis (1988). John C. Shields, ed. ''The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-506085-7}}
* Wheatley, Phillis (2001). Vincent Carretta, ed. ''Complete Writings''. New York: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-042430-X}}
; Biographies
* Borland, Kathryn Kilby and Speicher, Helen Ross (1968). ''Phillis Wheatley: Young Colonial Poet''. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
* Carretta, Vincent (2011). ''Phillis Wheatley: Biography of A Genius in Bondage''. Athens: University of Georgia Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8203-3338-0}}
* [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.|Gates, Henry Louis Jr.]] (2003). ''The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers,'' New York: Basic Civitas Books. {{ISBN|978-0-465-01850-5}}
* Richmond, M. A. (1988). ''Phillis Wheatley''. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. {{ISBN|1-55546-683-4}}
* Waldstreicher, David (2023). ''The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet's Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. {{ISBN|9780809098248}}. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/books/phillis-wheatley-david-waldstreicher.html?searchResultPosition=1 Review]

; Secondary materials
* Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. "Phillis Wheatley," In ''Literature: The Human Experience'', 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006: p.&nbsp;1606. {{ISBN?}}
* Barker-Benfield, Graham J. ''Phillis Wheatley Chooses Freedom: History, Poetry, and the Ideals of the American Revolution'' (NYU Press, 2018).{{ISBN?}}
* Bassard, Katherine Clay (1999). ''Spiritual Interrogations: Culture, Gender, and Community in Early African American Women's Writing''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-01639-9}}
* {{cite web |title=Phillis Wheatley: The unsung Black poet who shaped the US |website=BBC Rediscovering America |author-first=Robin |author-last=Catalano |date=21 Feb 2023 |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230220-phillis-wheatley-the-unsung-black-poet-who-shaped-the-us}}
* Chowdhury, Rowshan Jahan. "Restriction, Resistance, and Humility: A Feminist Approach to Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley’s Literary Works." ''Crossings'' 10 (2019) 47–56 [https://sah.ulab.edu.bd/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/09/Crossings_Vol10_2019.pdf#page=48 online]
* Engberg, Kathrynn Seidler, ''The Right to Write: The Literary Politics of Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley''. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-761-84609-3}}
* Langley, April C. E. (2008). ''The Black Aesthetic Unbound: Theorizing the Dilemma of Eighteenth-century African American Literature''. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8142-1077-2}}
* Ogude, S. E. (1983). ''Genius in Bondage: A Study of the Origins of African Literature in English''. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: University of Ife Press. {{ISBN|978-136-048-8}}
* Reising, Russel J. (1996). ''Loose Ends: Closure and Crisis in the American Social Text''. Durham: Duke University Press. {{ISBN|0-8223-1887-3}}
* Robinson, William Henry (1981). ''Phillis Wheatley: A Bio-bibliography''. Boston: GK Hall. {{ISBN|0-8161-8318-X}}
* Robinson, William Henry (1982). ''Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley''. Boston: GK Hall. {{ISBN|0-8161-8336-8}}
* Robinson, William Henry (1984). ''Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings''. New York: Garland. {{ISBN|0-8240-9346-1}}
* Shockley, Ann Allen (1988). ''Afro-American Women Writers, 1746–1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide''. Boston: GK Hall. {{ISBN|0-452-00981-2}}
* Waldstreicher, David. "The Wheatleyan Moment." ''Early American Studies'' (2011): 522–551. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23546668 online]
* Waldstreicher, David. "Ancients, Moderns, and Africans: Phillis Wheatley and the Politics of Empire and Slavery in the American Revolution." ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 37.4 (2017): 701–733. [https://jer.pennpress.org/media/86416/JER-374-Final-Text-WALDSTREICHER.pdf online]
* Zuck, Rochelle Raineri. "Poetic Economics: Phillis Wheatley and the Production of the Black Artist in the Early Atlantic World." ''Ethnic Studies Review'' 33.2 (2010): 143–168 [https://online.ucpress.edu/esr/article-pdf/33/2/143/107687/esr_2010_33_2_143.pdf online].

; Poetry (inspired by Wheatley)
* Clarke, Alison (2020). ''Phillis''. University of Calgary Press. {{ISBN|978-1-773-85135-8}}
* [[Honorée Fanonne Jeffers|Jeffers, Honorée Fanonne]] (2020). ''The Age of Phillis''. [[Wesleyan University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-819-57949-2}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource author}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=24620908}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/phillis-wheatley}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=227| name=Phillis Wheatley}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Phillis Wheatley}}
* {{Librivox author |id=333}}
* {{OL author|588695A}}
* [https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/phillis-wheatley "Phillis Wheatley"] National Women's History Museum
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/901bs Phillis Wheatley collection, 1757–1773]

{{Boston African American community pre-Civil War}}
{{Authority control}}

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