1 00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:05,240 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. Coming up this week on the show, 2 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,600 Speaker 1: we have a podcast subject who has some parallels with 3 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 1: Phillis Sweetly. Since we have a previous episode on Wheatly, 4 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: we thought it would be a good time to share 5 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: this one out of the archive. This episode originally came 6 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 1: out on mar So Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed 7 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:34,000 Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, 8 00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:37,199 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and 9 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:41,200 Speaker 1: I'm Holly fry. So. I've had the same experience multiple 10 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: times over the last year or so, which is that 11 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,199 Speaker 1: I've been walking through museum or a library and I've 12 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,200 Speaker 1: seen an exhibit on Phillis Sweetly and thought we really 13 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: should do a podcast episode on her now. Then that 14 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: keeps happening for at least a year, while for various reasons, 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: other topics wind up at the top of the list. 16 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: So Phillis s. Wheetlely is somebody whose basic biography I 17 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: learned about and whose work I read in school. But 18 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: it was only when I got into the research for 19 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: today's show that I realized how very, very incomplete a 20 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: lot of that was, and how dramatically people's perceptions and 21 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: their interpretations of her life and work have shifted since 22 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: eighteenth century. I mean, people have thought wildly different things 23 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: about Phillis Sweetly over the years. So today we are 24 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:31,039 Speaker 1: going to talk about not only Phillis S. Wheetlee, who 25 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,840 Speaker 1: was one of only three people in North America to 26 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: publish their work while enslaved, but also how her place 27 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: in the world of literature, especially black literature, rose and 28 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: then fell, and then rose again during her life and 29 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: after her death. Phyllis Wheatley was likely born in what's 30 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,040 Speaker 1: now Senegal or the Gambia in about seventeen fifty three. 31 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: We don't have details about exactly where she was from, 32 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: or which African nation or people she belonged to. Even 33 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: a connection to the Senegambia region is a little tenuous. 34 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: The slave ship that took her to Boston, Massachusetts did 35 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: stop there, but it also made several other stops in 36 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: Western Africa, so it's really tricky to pin down. The 37 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: crew moved south along the African coast as they tried 38 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: to carry out the orders of the ship's owner, Timothy Fitch, 39 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,960 Speaker 1: which were to quote, purchase one hundred or one hundred 40 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: ten prime slaves. Phillis herself did not really fit that 41 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: description of quote prime slaves. She was about seven, judging 42 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,239 Speaker 1: by the fact that she lost her front baby teeth 43 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: by the time she arrived in Boston. She was also small, 44 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: and she was in poor health. She probably would not 45 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 1: have been purchased during the ship's first stops in Africa, 46 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: but only later on and a final attempt for the 47 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: crew to fill that quota they'd been given. The ship 48 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: finally departed with nine enslaved Africans aboard, so Phillis may 49 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: have been from farther south along the African coast, possibly 50 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: as far south as Sierra Leone. We also don't know 51 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:07,640 Speaker 1: what Phillis Wheatley's name was before she was taken from Africa, 52 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: or even what language it was in the ship she 53 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: was aboard. Arrived in Boston, as we mentioned, and that 54 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,360 Speaker 1: happened on July eleventh, seventeen sixty one, with seventy five 55 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: enslaved Africans still living after the eight week transatlantic journey. 56 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,640 Speaker 1: In August, John and Susannah Wheatley purchased her, and they 57 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 1: named her after the ship they bought her from, which 58 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: was called the Charming Phillis, also known simply as Phyllis. 59 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: By the time the ship arrived in Boston, Phillis herself 60 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: was in poor enough health that she was considered to 61 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 1: be refuse, which was the term that was used for 62 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: enslaved people who were too old, sick, or injured to 63 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: be sailable. Charles J. Stratford, who was descended from one 64 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:53,320 Speaker 1: of Susannah Wheatley's relatives, described it this way. Quote In 65 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: or about the year seventeen sixty one, a slave ship 66 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: arrived in Boston Harbor with the cargo of slaves, and 67 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: Beatley was in want of a domestic. She went on 68 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: board to purchase, and looking through the ship's company of 69 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,600 Speaker 1: living freight, her attention was drawn to that of a slender, 70 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: frail female child, which at once enlisted her sympathies. Owing 71 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: to the frailty of the child, she procured her for 72 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,159 Speaker 1: a trifle, as the captain had fears of her dropping 73 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 1: off his hands without emolument by death. John Wheatley was 74 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: a prosperous tailor and merchant, and he and his wife 75 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: Susannah had twin children, Mary and Nathaniel, who were about 76 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: eighteen at the time, and the family quickly realized that 77 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: Phillis was really Bright, John and Susannah gave their children, 78 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: especially Mary, permission to tutor her. By the age of 79 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: about nine, just two years after she arrived in Boston, 80 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:50,520 Speaker 1: Phyllis had learned how to speak, read, and write in English. 81 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 1: In addition to doing extensive Bible study, she also started 82 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,920 Speaker 1: learning Latin and Greek, including translating part of Ovid's Metamorphoses 83 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: expand Get into the poem Naobian Distress for her children 84 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 1: Slain by Apollo. Later on, she also studied literature, history, geography, 85 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: and astronomy, and she also read lots and lots of poetry. 86 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: Her work is most often compared to English neo classical 87 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: poet Alexander Pope, but she read the work of other poets, 88 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: including some from the colonies. One of these was Mather Byles, 89 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: who seventeen forty four poems on Various Occasions may have 90 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: inspired the structure and arrangement of Phyllis's own book. She 91 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: was so voracious in her education that she was allowed 92 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: to spend more time in study than in domestic labor 93 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,800 Speaker 1: at the Wheatly home. This was well before the rise 94 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,040 Speaker 1: of anti literacy slave codes, which were passed, and most 95 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,760 Speaker 1: of the South in the early nineteenth century and made 96 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:49,480 Speaker 1: it illegal to teach enslaved people to read and write, 97 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: but even so in the eighteenth century it was not 98 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: typical at all to educate enslaved people. Even though she 99 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,359 Speaker 1: had no formal education, Phillis sweet Lea's tutor ring and 100 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,279 Speaker 1: her self study also went well beyond what would have 101 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: been expected for eighteenth century white women. In seventeen sixty seven, 102 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: two men from Nantucket visited the Wheatly home, and they 103 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: told a story about how they'd been sailing there from 104 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: Boston when a storm struck their ship. They had narrowly 105 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 1: escaped disaster. Phyllis overheard their conversation and she wrote a 106 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,200 Speaker 1: poem about it, which became her first published work, on 107 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 1: Mrs Hussey and Coffin, and that was printed in the 108 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:32,480 Speaker 1: December seventeen sixty seven edition of the Newport, Rhode Island Mercury. 109 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:37,360 Speaker 1: She was fourteen at the time. By seventeen seventy so 110 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,919 Speaker 1: just a few years later, tensions were rising between Britain 111 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: and its colonies. Although the Wheatly family were by all 112 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: accounts loyalists, meaning that they were loyal to Britain, Phyllis's 113 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:53,120 Speaker 1: sympathies were with the Patriots cause. She attended church at 114 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:55,479 Speaker 1: the Old South Meeting House, which is a place that 115 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: comes up over and over again in stories about the 116 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: Revolutionary War, and in seventeen seventy she wrote two poems 117 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: about relevant events of the day that made it really 118 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: clear which side she was on. The first, on the 119 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: Death of Mr. Snyder Murdered by Richardson. She describes the 120 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: murder of a boy named Christopher Snyder or Cider at 121 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 1: the hands of customs officer Ebenezer Richardson. In this poem, 122 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: she describes Christopher as a murdyr. The second is on 123 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:26,680 Speaker 1: the affray in King Street on the evening of the 124 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: fifth of March seventeen seventy. It's not completely clear whether 125 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: the second one, which is obviously about the Boston massacre, 126 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,200 Speaker 1: has survived. There is a poem with that name that 127 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: was published in the Boston Evening Post on March twelfth, 128 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, but it was not signed, and while some 129 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: critics say it's the same poem, others are not so sure. 130 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: That was a pretty common way of describing the Boston massacre, 131 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: which is why it's believable that two different poets could 132 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: have written a poem about it with roughly the same title. 133 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,000 Speaker 1: Was also in seventeen seventy that Phillis Wheetlely wrote the 134 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: poem that would make her famous. This was called an 135 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: Elegaic Poem on the Death of that celebrated Divine and 136 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 1: eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learning George Whitefield. 137 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: Whitefield was an Anglican deacon who toward the colonies that 138 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:20,160 Speaker 1: employed a style of preaching that was incredibly dynamic and charismatic. 139 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: He was really instrumental in the religious revival that was 140 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: known as the Great Awakening. How to say, these are 141 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:32,080 Speaker 1: not the snappiest poem titles. They all tend to run 142 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: a little long. Uh. Phillis wrote the elegy shortly after 143 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: Whitefield died on September seventeen seventy. It was first circulated 144 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 1: as a pamphlet in cities like Boston and Philadelphia. In 145 00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy one, it was reprinted along with the funeral 146 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:52,719 Speaker 1: sermon that Ebenezer Pemberton had delivered on October eleventh, seventeen seventy. 147 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: This reprinting gave Wheatley an audience on both sides of 148 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:59,720 Speaker 1: the Atlantic, especially after she sent a copy to Selina Hastings, 149 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: Counts of Huntingdon. In addition to his preaching tours in 150 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: the colonies, Whitefield had been the Countess's personal chaplain. Almost instantly, 151 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: Phillis S. Wheetlely became the most famous African in Britain 152 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: and its colonies, very well known as a poet. And 153 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: we will talk about what followed in the now famous 154 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 1: Phillis Wheetley's writing career. After a quick sponsor break, Phillis 155 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:34,680 Speaker 1: Sweetly kept writing new poems in the early seventeen seventies. 156 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,080 Speaker 1: Although some of them were published in pamphlets and newspapers, 157 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: she didn't really want to just scatter them all around, 158 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:43,840 Speaker 1: publishing them in lots of different places. She wanted to 159 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:47,199 Speaker 1: publish them together in a book, and by seventeen seventy 160 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: two she had written enough to do it. But to 161 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: fund this book's publication, she needed to find subscribers to 162 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:57,120 Speaker 1: commit to buying the work in advance. I imagine this 163 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:01,440 Speaker 1: as sort of a colonial version of Kickstarter. Either she 164 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:04,640 Speaker 1: or Susanna Wheatley, you're possibly both of them, working together 165 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: started placing advertisements for this forthcoming book with Ezekiel Russell 166 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:14,080 Speaker 1: as its printer, but sometime that summer, Phillis turned her 167 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:17,800 Speaker 1: attention to publishing in England instead. The reasons for this 168 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 1: are not entirely clear. There are a number of accounts 169 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:23,599 Speaker 1: that claim that she wasn't able to find enough subscribers 170 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,840 Speaker 1: in the colonies, but they don't really cite primary sources 171 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:30,240 Speaker 1: for that. But there is a seventeen seventy three letter 172 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:34,000 Speaker 1: from one of her subscribers, John Andrews of Boston, who 173 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:38,040 Speaker 1: suggested that it was really for financial reasons. Basically she 174 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: was getting better terms from a London press. The not 175 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:46,319 Speaker 1: enough subscribers argument usually comes along with the explanation that 176 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,200 Speaker 1: racism was the root cause of her not finding an 177 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,720 Speaker 1: audience in the colonies, and this was not racism as 178 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,960 Speaker 1: in white readers maliciously not wanting to read the work 179 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,160 Speaker 1: of a black person. It was really racism as in 180 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:03,280 Speaker 1: white there's disbelieving that a black person could have even 181 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:07,439 Speaker 1: written it. For the institution of slavery to exist the 182 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:09,880 Speaker 1: way that it did in the American colonies, it had 183 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,079 Speaker 1: to rest on the idea that Africans were less than 184 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:17,559 Speaker 1: human and were inherently less intelligent than Europeans. So there 185 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:20,400 Speaker 1: were definitely people on both sides of the Atlantic who 186 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:23,520 Speaker 1: thought that Wheatley's poems must be some kind of fraud. 187 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,640 Speaker 1: Wheatley dealt with this by getting some of Boston's most 188 00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:31,640 Speaker 1: prominent men to sign an attestation that she really was 189 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: the author of her own poems. This included Massachusetts Governor 190 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:40,760 Speaker 1: Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver, the Reverend Mother Biles, 191 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:44,439 Speaker 1: and the Reverend Samuel mother nephew and son of Cotton Mother, 192 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:49,679 Speaker 1: the Reverend Charles Chauncey, and John Hancock. A copy of 193 00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: this attestation, dated October seventeen seventy two, appeared in Lloyd's 194 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:59,120 Speaker 1: Evening Post and British Chronicle in September of the following year, 195 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:02,360 Speaker 1: and a lightly reworded version of it was part of 196 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:05,120 Speaker 1: Wheatley's first book as well. And here's what the book 197 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:09,920 Speaker 1: version said. Quote, we whose names are underwritten do assure 198 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: the world that the poems specified in the following page were, 199 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:17,680 Speaker 1: as we verily believe, written by Phillis, a young Negro 200 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:21,679 Speaker 1: girl who, but a few years since brought an uncultivated 201 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:26,199 Speaker 1: barbarian from Africa, has ever since been and now is 202 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 1: under the disadvantage of serving as a slave and a 203 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 1: family in this town. She has been examined by some 204 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:37,520 Speaker 1: of the best judges and is thought qualified to write them. 205 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: Although it's become part of the popular lore about Phillis 206 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: Wheatley that this took place, there's no actual evidence that 207 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,600 Speaker 1: the undersigned men actually met in a group and interrogated 208 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:50,480 Speaker 1: her about her work. There's even a children's book that 209 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,600 Speaker 1: hinges on this supposed meeting. It's actually a much more 210 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: likely scenario that there was a big meeting that was 211 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,440 Speaker 1: documented to have happened on October um, and she took 212 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 1: advantage of this gathering of prominent men to stop by 213 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:06,719 Speaker 1: and and say, hey, would you please sign this at 214 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:10,240 Speaker 1: a station that I actually wrote my own work. This 215 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 1: at of station was not the only step that she 216 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,559 Speaker 1: took and getting her book published in England and in 217 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:18,520 Speaker 1: getting people to believe that she had really written what 218 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: was in the book. She also wrote to William Legg, 219 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: the Earl of Dartmouth, in October of seventeen seventy two, 220 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:27,200 Speaker 1: sending him a copy of a poem she had written 221 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:30,760 Speaker 1: about him. The Earl had just been named Secretary of 222 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:33,920 Speaker 1: State for the Colonies, and she both celebrated his appointment 223 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 1: in the poem and included another attestation of her authenticity, 224 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:43,040 Speaker 1: this one signed by Nathaniel Wheatley. Phyllis also made a 225 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: third connection to Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, the 226 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 1: one whose personal chaplain had been the Reverend George Whitefield. 227 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:54,720 Speaker 1: The Countess Lord Dartmouth, and Susannah Wheatley were all connected 228 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: through the Countess of Huntingdon's connection, which was a network 229 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:02,840 Speaker 1: of evangelical churches and chapel. Phillis dedicated her manuscript to 230 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:06,400 Speaker 1: the Countess, who advocated for its publication in England through 231 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:11,360 Speaker 1: publisher Archibald Bell. Accompanied by Nathaniel Wheatley, Phillis went to 232 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: London in seventeen seventy three to oversee the publication of 233 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: her book. Sometimes this trip is also described as being 234 00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: for the sake of her health. She was definitely there 235 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,400 Speaker 1: to work on the book. By this point, she'd established 236 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 1: such a name for herself that she had a huge 237 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,920 Speaker 1: list of notable people to visit. Probably the name that 238 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:34,520 Speaker 1: people would be most likely to recognize today is Benjamin Franklin, 239 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,640 Speaker 1: who was at the time in London. If you've listened 240 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: to the Dido Elizabeth Bell segment of our episode three 241 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: Astonishing Bells, you'll recall that we talked about the Somerset Case, 242 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:47,640 Speaker 1: and this was a court case decided in seventeen seventy 243 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: two in which Lord Mansfield ruled that an enslaved person 244 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:55,240 Speaker 1: brought to England could not be sold back into slavery. 245 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: In some places this was interpreted as freeing all slaves 246 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,320 Speaker 1: in England, which it didn't re we do, but it 247 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:03,960 Speaker 1: did mean that when Phillis Wheatley arrived in London the 248 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,600 Speaker 1: following year, under English law, she could not be forced 249 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:11,240 Speaker 1: back into slavery. It's possible that this is one of 250 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:13,840 Speaker 1: the reasons that she decided to publish her book in 251 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: England rather than in the colonies. People in Boston definitely 252 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 1: knew about the Somerset case by the time she made 253 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: that decision. Phillis Sweetley's first and only published book, which 254 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 1: was Poems on various subjects religious and moral, was published 255 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: on September one, seventeen seventy three. This is the first 256 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: published volume of poetry by an African woman in the 257 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:39,720 Speaker 1: English speaking world. It included that attestation of her authenticity 258 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,200 Speaker 1: that we read earlier, along with a letter from John 259 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: Wheatley briefly detailing where she came from and how she 260 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:49,680 Speaker 1: had been educated, and concluding quote relation is given by 261 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: her master, who bought her and with whom she now lives. 262 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:56,080 Speaker 1: The book's frontispiece featured a portrait of her, ringed in 263 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:59,480 Speaker 1: the words Phillis Sweetley negro servant to Mr John Wheatley 264 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:02,840 Speaker 1: of Boston, and that portrait is likely the work of 265 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 1: enslaved African painter Scipio Moorehead, who was also the subject 266 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: of Wheatly's poem to s M. A young African painter, 267 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: on seeing his works. If you're wondering about that wording 268 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,479 Speaker 1: of negro servant. A lot of people who were enslaved 269 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:22,120 Speaker 1: were referred to as servants, especially in England and New England. 270 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: A few weeks after Phillis arrived in England, Susannah Wheatley 271 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: became seriously ill, and Phillis returned to Massachusetts to attend 272 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:35,359 Speaker 1: to her. Her ship arrived on September sixteen, seventeen seventy three. 273 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:38,800 Speaker 1: Four days later, The Boston Gazette noted her arrival among 274 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:44,280 Speaker 1: notable passengers aboard her ship, calling her an extraordinary poetical genius. 275 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: At some point not long after that Phillis was manumitted 276 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 1: by the Wheatly's, and a letter to David Wooster dated 277 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:56,320 Speaker 1: October eighteen, seventeen seventy three, she wrote, quote, since my 278 00:16:56,440 --> 00:17:00,040 Speaker 1: return to America, my master has, at the desire of 279 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 1: my friends in England, given me my freedom. Her book 280 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,959 Speaker 1: had received at least nine reviews in British papers, and 281 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,360 Speaker 1: many of those reviews had really condemned the Wheatlas continued 282 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,760 Speaker 1: enslavement of her. So even though she could really not 283 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,200 Speaker 1: have been forced to return to slavery under the Somerset ruling, 284 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 1: after having been in England, the wheat Laves made that official. 285 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: Phillis also took the precautionary step of sending a copy 286 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:27,560 Speaker 1: of her manumission papers to a contact she had in 287 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: London for safe keeping. We're going to talk about what 288 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:33,359 Speaker 1: we know of Phillis Wheatley's life as a free woman, 289 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:36,439 Speaker 1: including a famous exchange with George Washington, but we're going 290 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: to first take a little sponsor break. By the time 291 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,720 Speaker 1: Phillis Wheatley returned from England, the colonies were definitely headed 292 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:55,280 Speaker 1: toward war with Britain. That was, of course, the Revolutionary War. 293 00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: George Washington was named Commander in Chief of the Continental 294 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:03,960 Speaker 1: Army on June nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, and on October 295 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: of that year, Phillis Sweetlye sent him a poem she 296 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,800 Speaker 1: had written in his honor along with the letter. The 297 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:14,200 Speaker 1: letter read quote, I have taken the freedom to address 298 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:18,120 Speaker 1: your Excellency in the enclosed poem and entreat your acceptance, 299 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:22,040 Speaker 1: though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. You're being 300 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:25,400 Speaker 1: appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be General Lissimo 301 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:28,520 Speaker 1: of the Armies of North America. Together with the fame 302 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 1: of your virtues excite sensations. Not easy to suppress your generosity. Therefore, 303 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: I presume will pardon the attempt, wishing your excellency all 304 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: possible success in the great cause you are so generously 305 00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:47,400 Speaker 1: engaged in. This poem ends with the widely quoted lines, Proceed, 306 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:51,320 Speaker 1: great Chief, with virtue on thy side. By every action, 307 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,800 Speaker 1: let the Goddess guide a crown, a mansion, and a 308 00:18:54,920 --> 00:19:00,200 Speaker 1: throne that shine with gold unfading. Washington be the mine 309 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:06,720 Speaker 1: that Washington is in all caps. Washington's reply, dated February 310 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,720 Speaker 1: tenth of the following year, began with an apology for 311 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: taking so long to answer. It then went on to say, 312 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:16,159 Speaker 1: quote the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of 313 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:19,520 Speaker 1: your great poetical talents, in honor of which, and as 314 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,800 Speaker 1: a tribute justly due to you, I would have published 315 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:25,879 Speaker 1: the poem had I not been apprehensive that while I 316 00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,159 Speaker 1: only meant to give the world this new instance of 317 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. 318 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:35,439 Speaker 1: This and nothing else determined me not to give it 319 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:38,400 Speaker 1: place in the public prints. If you should ever come 320 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,320 Speaker 1: to Cambridge or near headquarters, I shall be happy to 321 00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:43,879 Speaker 1: see a person so favored by the muses, and to 322 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,720 Speaker 1: whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. 323 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: I am with great respect, etcetera, etcetera. They're historians are 324 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 1: divided about whether she actually met George Washington and Cambridge. 325 00:19:58,240 --> 00:19:59,960 Speaker 1: But it cracks me up that this letter is space 326 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,119 Speaker 1: saically like I would have published this incredibly flattering poem 327 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 1: you wrote about me, but then people might think I'm vain. 328 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: Perhaps to get around that accusation of vanity. George Washington 329 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:15,159 Speaker 1: also sent the poem to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Reid and 330 00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:17,960 Speaker 1: closing it in a letter that talked about all kinds 331 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,800 Speaker 1: of other various unrelated matters before concluding quote, I recollect 332 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,840 Speaker 1: nothing else worth giving you the trouble of, unless you 333 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,720 Speaker 1: can be amused by reading a letter and poem addressed 334 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,000 Speaker 1: to me by Mrs or Miss Phyllis Wheatley, and searching 335 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,640 Speaker 1: over a parcel of papers the other day in order 336 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,679 Speaker 1: to destroy such as we're useless. I brought it to 337 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: light again, at first with a view of doing justice 338 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,159 Speaker 1: to her great poetical genius. I had a great mind 339 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,520 Speaker 1: to publish the poem, but not knowing whether it might 340 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:51,360 Speaker 1: be considered rather as a mark of my own vanity 341 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,160 Speaker 1: than as a compliment to her, I laid it aside 342 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,800 Speaker 1: until I came across it again in the manner just mentioned. 343 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,480 Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Reid apparently took the hint. The poem was 344 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:07,480 Speaker 1: published in Pennsylvania Magazine in April of seventeen seventy six, 345 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 1: and other publications picked it up from there. With the 346 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:15,000 Speaker 1: onset of the Revolutionary War, things got a lot more 347 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:19,720 Speaker 1: difficult for Phyllis Wheatly. Susannah Wheatley had died on March third, 348 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,520 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, and then Nathaniel Wheatley had actually died 349 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,080 Speaker 1: a year before. His mother. Mary and John Wheatley both 350 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:31,639 Speaker 1: died in seventeen seventy eight, so the Wheatly's had kept 351 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:35,359 Speaker 1: Phillis in bondage, but they'd also essentially been filling the 352 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,200 Speaker 1: role of her patrons. Without their support, she had trouble 353 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,680 Speaker 1: selling poems and making ends meet, especially since the war 354 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,120 Speaker 1: meant that reader's attention was really focused on other matters. 355 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:51,159 Speaker 1: On April one, seventeen seventy eight, Phyllis Wheatley and a 356 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:55,439 Speaker 1: free black man named John Peters announced their engagement. They 357 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,080 Speaker 1: married on Thanksgiving Day of that year, which was November 358 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 1: twenty six. Most biographers have not been very kind to 359 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,760 Speaker 1: John Peters. That kind of paint him as a shiftless 360 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: man who could not get his act together, but in reality, 361 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: things were extremely difficult for free black people in New 362 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:16,679 Speaker 1: England during the Revolutionary War. Jobs were hard to find, 363 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,560 Speaker 1: the pay was often so low that it wasn't enough 364 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,679 Speaker 1: to live on. So John Peters tried his hand at 365 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,639 Speaker 1: running a grocery and a bakery in a saloon, but 366 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:28,359 Speaker 1: he just was not able to get a stable financial 367 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 1: footing under him. He also referred to himself as a 368 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,160 Speaker 1: doctor and at one point practice law, and some biographers 369 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:36,720 Speaker 1: have made a great big deal of the fact that 370 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 1: he didn't have a license to do either of those, 371 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 1: even though there was not a licensing body that he 372 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 1: could have applied to at the time. Yeah, that was 373 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:50,359 Speaker 1: pretty common practice this in this for people to hang 374 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: out their shingle and say they were a professional in 375 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:55,840 Speaker 1: a field where today we would have a lot more 376 00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:00,960 Speaker 1: um paperwork and applications and a rouvals before you could 377 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,520 Speaker 1: use those words. For sure, that is not exclusive to 378 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: John Peters at all. We really don't know much at 379 00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:11,359 Speaker 1: all about the last few years of Phillis Wheatley's life, 380 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,600 Speaker 1: except that they seem to have been lived in poverty. 381 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 1: John Peters wound up in and out of jail for debt, 382 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,400 Speaker 1: and Phillis may have had as many as three children, 383 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: although there were no records kept of their births or deaths. 384 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: She died, most likely due to complications from childbirth, on 385 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,480 Speaker 1: December five, s four, at the age of thirty one, 386 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 1: with most sources agreeing that her newborn died on that 387 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:38,919 Speaker 1: same day. Before she died, Phillis sweetly had written a 388 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 1: second book, which she had tried to publish in seventeen 389 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: seventy nine, but she couldn't find sufficient subscribers to do 390 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,080 Speaker 1: it again. This was during the Revolutionary War. It was difficult. 391 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 1: That manuscript unfortunately has been lost. John Peters does seem 392 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: to have gotten his financial worries straightened out after the 393 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,119 Speaker 1: war was over, led an upstanding life from that point. 394 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: He is the last person known to have had access 395 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,800 Speaker 1: to that manuscript. He may have taken it with him 396 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,440 Speaker 1: when he eventually left Boston, but exactly where he went 397 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,520 Speaker 1: or what happened to the manuscript is just not clear. 398 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:20,119 Speaker 1: Fifty seven of Phyllis's poems survived today. Forty six of 399 00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: them were published during her lifetime. In six what was 400 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,439 Speaker 1: believed to be her last poem was unearthed. That was 401 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 1: titled an Elegy on Leaving, and it was published in 402 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: Armenian Magazine, which would later become Methodist Magazine, in July 403 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:39,320 Speaker 1: sight four. This magazine was edited by John Wesley, the 404 00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,320 Speaker 1: founder of Methodism, and it seems as though whoever sent 405 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:46,760 Speaker 1: the poem to him incorrectly attributed it. According to research 406 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,520 Speaker 1: by Caroline Wiggington, it was really the work of Mary Wadley, 407 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:54,240 Speaker 1: first published in her collection Original Poems. On several occasions 408 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:58,840 Speaker 1: twenty years earlier. This is probably an honest mistake somebody made, 409 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,400 Speaker 1: as we've talked about before, or spellings were not very 410 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: standardized at this period, so it was it would have 411 00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:12,119 Speaker 1: been easy for Wheatly and what Lely or Watterly to 412 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,000 Speaker 1: have been spelled in nearly the same or exactly the 413 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:19,760 Speaker 1: same way. During and after Phillis Wheatley's lifetime, her work 414 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 1: was used by abolitionists as evidence that Africans were humans 415 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,520 Speaker 1: with souls and intelligence equal to that of Europeans, but 416 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:30,840 Speaker 1: not everyone had seen her work as evidence of the 417 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:36,280 Speaker 1: intrinsic humanity and equality of Africans. Thomas Jefferson criticized her 418 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,760 Speaker 1: work heavily in Notes on the State of Virginia in 419 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:43,719 Speaker 1: seven he wrote quote, Misery is often the parent of 420 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,280 Speaker 1: the most affecting touches and poetry. Among the Blacks is 421 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:51,200 Speaker 1: misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the 422 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 1: particular east room of the poet. Their love is ardent, 423 00:25:55,280 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion indeed, 424 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: has has produced a Phillis Sweetly, but it could not 425 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,560 Speaker 1: produce a poet. The compositions composed under her name are below. 426 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:13,760 Speaker 1: The dignity of criticism. I want to time travel and 427 00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: maybe um uh yeah, I want to say bad things 428 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:23,680 Speaker 1: to Thomas Jefferson. That's what's up. Aside from Jefferson's disparagement, 429 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:26,119 Speaker 1: Wheatley's work started to fall out of favor in the 430 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,119 Speaker 1: nineteenth century as it was overshadowed by slave narratives and 431 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:33,720 Speaker 1: the work of people like Frederick Douglas. This was especially 432 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 1: true since Wheatly's enslavement had taken place in such relative comfort. 433 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:40,159 Speaker 1: We don't want to downplay the fact that she was 434 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,639 Speaker 1: still an enslaved person, but there were certainly stories that 435 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:47,280 Speaker 1: were a lot darker out there circulating. So her stood 436 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 1: in sharp contrast to the writing that was tied at 437 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,199 Speaker 1: the time to the Antebellum souse. By the turn of 438 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,560 Speaker 1: the twentieth century, writers and critics were pointing out a 439 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,720 Speaker 1: range of perceived shortcomings and Phillis sweet Lely's work, including 440 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,720 Speaker 1: that she wasn't personal enough, she wasn't genuine enough, and 441 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,399 Speaker 1: she cared too little for other enslaved Africans. And the 442 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:09,760 Speaker 1: words of James Weldon Johnson, who was writing in the 443 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:14,160 Speaker 1: nineteen preface to the Book of American Negro Poetry, quote 444 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,960 Speaker 1: one looks in vain for some outburst or even complaint 445 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:21,520 Speaker 1: against the bondage of her people, for some agonizing cry 446 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:25,480 Speaker 1: about her native land. And two poems she refers definitely 447 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 1: to Africa as her home. But in each instance there 448 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,040 Speaker 1: seems to be under the sentiment of the lines a 449 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:36,520 Speaker 1: feeling of almost smug contentment at her own escape therefrom 450 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,280 Speaker 1: In the early to mid twentieth century, people started to 451 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,280 Speaker 1: write Phyllis Wheatley off as a second rate imitator of 452 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,439 Speaker 1: Alexander Pope. This sort of criticism really escalated in the 453 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,480 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, especially within the Black Arts movement, which saw 454 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: Wheatley's work as not nearly political or radical enough. Writing 455 00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,640 Speaker 1: in The New Yorker in two thousand three, Dr Henry 456 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,280 Speaker 1: Lewis Gates Junior described it this way, quote too black 457 00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,760 Speaker 1: to be taken seriously by white critics in the eighteenth century, 458 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:10,400 Speaker 1: Wheatley was now considered too white to interest black critics 459 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:14,399 Speaker 1: critics in the twenty A lot of this criticism cites 460 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,679 Speaker 1: Wheatly's poem on being Brought from Africa to America, and 461 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 1: the first stanza of this poem reads, twas Mercy brought 462 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,520 Speaker 1: me from my pagan land taught my benighted soul to 463 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:28,880 Speaker 1: understand that there's a God and there's a savior too. 464 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:34,639 Speaker 1: Once I redemption neither sought nor new. So in other words, 465 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,040 Speaker 1: she's describing being brought from Africa to America as a 466 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,960 Speaker 1: slave as something merciful, because otherwise she wouldn't have learned 467 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:46,000 Speaker 1: about the existence of God and sought redemption. But the 468 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:50,080 Speaker 1: poem's second stanza goes on to condemn racism and hypocrisy 469 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 1: among Christian slave owners, admonishing them to remember that, to 470 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 1: use her word, negroes are also human souls who are 471 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:00,920 Speaker 1: able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Here is the 472 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: second half of that poem. Some view are sable race 473 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:10,520 Speaker 1: with scornful eye. Their color is a diabolic dye. Remember, Christians, 474 00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:14,520 Speaker 1: negroes black as cane may be refined and joined the 475 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:18,880 Speaker 1: angelic train. It's also worth noting that this poem, which 476 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,360 Speaker 1: has been used to just write phil As sweetly off completely, 477 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,479 Speaker 1: was written when she was about fourteen years old, and 478 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 1: if she had lived longer, it would have been thought 479 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:29,920 Speaker 1: of as part of her juvenile aa and not as 480 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,720 Speaker 1: part of her mature body of work and criticisms that 481 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: she never condemned slavery, are simply not accurate. Here's a 482 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: stanza from to the right Honorable William Earl of Dartmouth, 483 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: which we were referenced earlier. Quote, should you, my lord, 484 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,520 Speaker 1: while you peruse my song, wonder from whence my love 485 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:52,400 Speaker 1: of freedom sprung? Whence flow these wishes for the common good? 486 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:57,600 Speaker 1: By feeling hearts alone best understood? I young in life, 487 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: by seeming cruel fate was snatched from Africa's fancied happy seat. 488 00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:06,720 Speaker 1: What pangs excruciating must molest, what sorrows labor in my 489 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: parents breast stealed? Was that soul? And by no misery 490 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:15,160 Speaker 1: moved that from a father seized his babe beloved? Such 491 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,880 Speaker 1: such my case? And can I then but pray others 492 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:23,240 Speaker 1: may never feel tyrannic sway? And that same book introduction 493 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:28,840 Speaker 1: James Weldon Johnson dismissed that poem as unimpassioned. In the 494 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,360 Speaker 1: last few decades, critics and scholars have started to take 495 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: a closer look at Wheatley's actual writing, which had previously 496 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 1: been overshadowed by her biography and her general noteworthiness as 497 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,280 Speaker 1: an enslaved black poet during the colonial era. Some of 498 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:49,400 Speaker 1: this traces possible African influences in her work. Several literary critics, 499 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:53,800 Speaker 1: including John C. Shields and Mary Catherine Loving, also interpreted 500 00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:57,200 Speaker 1: her work as a lot more subversive than previous criticism 501 00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: had given it credit for. So it's high to draw 502 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: comparisons to specific African cultures because Africa is not a monolith, 503 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 1: and we don't know exactly where Philis Wheatly was from 504 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,280 Speaker 1: or what who her people in Africa would have been. 505 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:16,080 Speaker 1: But several historians have noted that multiple West African people's 506 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:19,960 Speaker 1: use funeral elegies as a central element of community life, 507 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,959 Speaker 1: with these songs most often being performed by young women. 508 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,239 Speaker 1: Nearly a third of wheatly surviving poems are elegies, and 509 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: structurally they have more in common with African elegies than 510 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 1: with elegaic poems from when she was living written in Europe. 511 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,080 Speaker 1: Another potential African influence on Wheatly's work is in its imagery. 512 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: Margaretta Matilda O'Dell wrote the first biography, which was published 513 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,440 Speaker 1: with an addition of her poems in eighteen thirty four, 514 00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 1: and in the introduction to that biography, O'Dell claimed, quote, 515 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,240 Speaker 1: she does not seem to have preserved any remembrance of 516 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,800 Speaker 1: the place of her nativity or of her parents, accepting 517 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: the simple circumstance that her mother poured out water before 518 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:05,360 Speaker 1: the sun at his rising, in reference no doubt to 519 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,720 Speaker 1: an ancient African custom. The rising sun is frequently a 520 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,680 Speaker 1: repeated theme in Wheatley's poetry, as well as plays on 521 00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:16,719 Speaker 1: the words involving son as in the male child and 522 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:21,160 Speaker 1: son as in the bright blazing object in the sky. 523 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,080 Speaker 1: And then there's the fact that Wheatley was, based on 524 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,840 Speaker 1: everything we know of her, obviously very smart, her making 525 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,800 Speaker 1: connections in London and traveling there after the Somerset case 526 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:37,080 Speaker 1: was decided to suggest that she was also politically very savvy. 527 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:41,440 Speaker 1: She also removed a lot of explicitly pro patriot poems 528 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:44,360 Speaker 1: from that collection of poetry before having it printed in London, 529 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,200 Speaker 1: and she replaced them with ones that would be more 530 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 1: acceptable to a more loyalist audience. So it's really reasonable 531 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: to conclude that she understood how she was being constrained 532 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,200 Speaker 1: by the world that she was living in, and she 533 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,760 Speaker 1: was crafting poems to be well received with in that world. 534 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,840 Speaker 1: So instead of writing poems explicitly about the evils of slavery. 535 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,560 Speaker 1: She wrote poems about loving liberty and freedom, which, within 536 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,520 Speaker 1: her overwhelmingly white audience and the colonies, would be read 537 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:23,360 Speaker 1: as patriotism instead of as criticism. Thank you so much 538 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: for joining us today for this Saturday classic. 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