1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. So I've 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,479 Speaker 1: had the same experience multiple times over the last year 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,360 Speaker 1: or so, which is that I've been walking through museum 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: or a library and I've seen an exhibit on Phillis 7 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: Sweetly and thought we really should do a podcast episode 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,840 Speaker 1: on her now. Then that keeps happening for at least 9 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 1: a year, while for various reasons, other topics wind up 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: up at the top of the list. So Phillis Sweetly 11 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: is somebody who's basic biography I learned about and whose 12 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,639 Speaker 1: work I read in school. But it was only when 13 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: I got into the research for today's show that I 14 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:53,239 Speaker 1: realized how very, very incomplete a lot of that was, 15 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: and how dramatically people's perceptions and their interpretations of her 16 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: life and work have shifted since eighteenth century. I mean, 17 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,640 Speaker 1: people have thought wildly different things about Phillis Sweetly over 18 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,920 Speaker 1: the years. So today we are going to talk about 19 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,040 Speaker 1: not only Phillis Sweetly, who was one of only three 20 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: people in North America to publish their work while enslaved, 21 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: but also how her place in the world of literature, 22 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: especially black literature, rose and then fell, and then rose 23 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: again during her life and after her death. Phyllis Wheatley 24 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: was likely born in what's now Senegal or the Gambia 25 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 1: in about seventeen fifty three. We don't have details about 26 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: exactly where she was from, or which African nation or 27 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: people she belonged to. Even the connection to the Senegambia 28 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: region is a little tenuous. The slave ship that took 29 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 1: her to Boston, Massachusetts did stop there, but it also 30 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: made several other stops in western Africa, so it's really 31 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: tricky to pin down. The crew moved south along the 32 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,520 Speaker 1: African coast as they tried to carry out the orders 33 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: of the ship's owner, Timothy Fitch, which were to quote 34 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: purchase one hundred or one hundred ten prime slaves. Phillis 35 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: herself did not really fit that description of quote prime slaves. 36 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: She was about seven, judging by the fact that she 37 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,960 Speaker 1: lost her front baby teeth by the time she arrived 38 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,120 Speaker 1: in Boston. She was also small, and she was in 39 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 1: poor health. She probably would not have been purchased during 40 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: the ship's first stops in Africa. But only later on 41 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: and a final attempt for the crew to fill that 42 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: quota they'd been given. The ship finally departed with ninety 43 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: five enslaved Africans aboard, so Phillis may have been from 44 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: farther south along the African coast, possibly as far south 45 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 1: as Sierra Leone. We also don't know what Phillis Wheatley's 46 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,919 Speaker 1: name was before she was taken from Africa, or even 47 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: what language it was in the ship she was aboard. 48 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: Arrived in Boston, as we mentioned, and that happened on 49 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: July eleven, seventeen sixty one, with seventy five enslaved Africans 50 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: still living after the eight week transatlantic journey. In August, 51 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: John and Susannah Wheatley purchased her, and they named her 52 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: after the ship they bought her from, which was called 53 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: the Charming Phyllis, also known simply as Phyllis. By the 54 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: time the ship arrived in Boston, Phillis herself was in 55 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,080 Speaker 1: poor enough health that she was considered to be refuse, 56 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: which was the term that was used for enslaved people 57 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: who were too old, sick, or injured to be sailable. 58 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,040 Speaker 1: Charles J. Stratford, who was descended from one of Susannah 59 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: Wheatley's relatives described it this way. Quote In or about 60 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:35,680 Speaker 1: the year seventeen sixty one, a slave ship arrived in 61 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: Boston Harbor with the cargo of slaves. Aunt Wheatley was 62 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: in want of a domestic. She went on board to purchase, 63 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: and looking through the ship's company of living freight, her 64 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: attention was drawn to that of a slender, frail female child, 65 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: which at once enlisted her sympathies. Owing to the frailty 66 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: of the child, she procured her for a trifle, as 67 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 1: the captain had fears of her dropping off his hands 68 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: without emolument by death. John Wheatley was a prosperous tailor 69 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,520 Speaker 1: and merchant, and he and his wife Susannah had twin children, 70 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: Mary and Nathaniel, who were about eighteen at the time, 71 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: and the family quickly realized that Phillis was really bright. 72 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:19,159 Speaker 1: John and Susannah gave their children, especially Mary, permission to 73 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 1: tutor her. By the age of about nine, just two 74 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 1: years after she arrived in Boston, Phyllis had learned how 75 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:30,039 Speaker 1: to speak, read, and write in English. In addition to 76 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: doing extensive Bible study, she also started learning Latin and Greek, 77 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: including translating part of Avid's Metamorphoses, expanding it into the 78 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: poem Naobian Distress for her children Slain by Apollo. Later on, 79 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: she also studied literature, history, geography, and astronomy, and she 80 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: also read lots and lots of poetry. Her work is 81 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: most often compared to English neo classical poet Alexander Pope, 82 00:04:57,279 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: but she read the work of other poets, including some 83 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: from the colonies. One of these was Mather Byles, whose 84 00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: seventeen forty four poems on Various Occasions may have inspired 85 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:11,320 Speaker 1: the structure and arrangement of Phillis's own book. She was 86 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:13,720 Speaker 1: so voracious in her education that she was allowed to 87 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:16,440 Speaker 1: spend more time in study than in domestic labor at 88 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: the Wheatly home. This was well before the rise of 89 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:22,800 Speaker 1: anti literacy slave codes, which were passed and most of 90 00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:25,479 Speaker 1: the South in the early nineteenth century and made it 91 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: illegal to teach enslaved people to read and write. But 92 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: even so in the eighteenth century it was not typical 93 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: at all to educate enslaved people. Even though she had 94 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: no formal education. Phillis Wheatley's tutoring and her self study 95 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: also went well beyond what would have been expected for 96 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: eighteenth century white women. In seventeen sixty seven, two men 97 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,839 Speaker 1: from Nantucket visited the Wheatly home and they told a 98 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: story about how they had been sailing there from Boston 99 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,680 Speaker 1: when a storm struck their ship. They had narrowly escaped disaster. 100 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: Phillis overheard their conversation and she wrote a poem about it, 101 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,400 Speaker 1: which became her first published work on Mrs Hussey and Coffin, 102 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: and that was printed in the December twenty one, seventeen 103 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,680 Speaker 1: sixty seven edition of the Newport, Rhode Island Mercury. She 104 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 1: was fourteen at the time. By seventeen seventy, so just 105 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:19,720 Speaker 1: a few years later, tensions were rising between Britain and 106 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 1: its colonies. Although the Wheatly family were by all accounts loyalists, 107 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:28,599 Speaker 1: meaning that they were loyal to Britain, Phyllis's sympathies were 108 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:32,160 Speaker 1: with the Patriots cause. She attended church at the Old 109 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:34,839 Speaker 1: South Meeting House, which is a place that comes up 110 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 1: over and over again in stories about the Revolutionary War, 111 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: and in seventeen seventies she wrote two poems about relevant 112 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,040 Speaker 1: events of the day that made it really clear which 113 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,919 Speaker 1: side she was on the first, on the death of 114 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 1: Mr Snyder murdered by Richardson. She describes the murder of 115 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:54,599 Speaker 1: a boy named Christopher Snyder or Cider at the hands 116 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:59,560 Speaker 1: of customs officer Ebenezer Richardson. In this poem, she describes 117 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: Christopher her as a murdyr. The second is on the 118 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 1: affray in King Street on the evening of the fifth 119 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: of March seventeen seventy. It's not completely clear whether the 120 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,800 Speaker 1: second one, which is obviously about the Boston massacre, has survived. 121 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: There is a poem with that name that was published 122 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: in the Boston Evening Post on March twelfth, seventeen seventy, 123 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: but it was not signed, and while some critics say 124 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 1: it's the same poem, others are not so sure. That 125 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: was a pretty common way of describing the Boston massacre, 126 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: which is why it's believable that two different poets could 127 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 1: have written a poem about it with roughly the same title. 128 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: It was also in seventeen seventy that Phyllis Wheetlely wrote 129 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,320 Speaker 1: the poem that would make her famous. This was called 130 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: an Elegaic Poem on the death of that celebrated divine 131 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,720 Speaker 1: and eminent servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learning 132 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: George Whitefield. Whitefield was an Anglican deacon who toward the 133 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: colonies that employed a style of preaching that was incredibly 134 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:01,400 Speaker 1: dynamic and charismatic. He was really instrumental in the religious 135 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: revival that was known as the Great Awakening. How to say, 136 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: these are not the snappiest poem titles. They all tend 137 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 1: to run a little long. Uh. Phillis wrote the elegy 138 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 1: shortly after Whitefield died on September seventeen seventy. It was 139 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: first circulated as a pamphlet in cities like Boston and Philadelphia. 140 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy one, it was reprinted along with the 141 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: funeral sermon that Ebenezer Pemberton had delivered on October eleventh, 142 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy. This reprinting gave Wheatley an audience on both 143 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:37,200 Speaker 1: sides of the Atlantic, especially after she sent a copy 144 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: to Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. In addition to his 145 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: preaching tours in the colonies, white Field had been the 146 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: Countess's personal chaplain. Almost instantly, Phillis Wheetley became the most 147 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:52,839 Speaker 1: famous African in Britain and its colonies, very well known 148 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: as a poet, and we will talk about what followed 149 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: and the now famous Phillis Wheatley's writing career. After a 150 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:08,200 Speaker 1: quick sponsor, Phillis sweetly kept writing new poems in the 151 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 1: early seventeen seventies. Although some of them were published in 152 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: pamphlets and newspapers, she didn't really want to just scatter 153 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:17,880 Speaker 1: them all around, publishing them and lots of different places. 154 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:21,080 Speaker 1: She wanted to publish them together in a book, and 155 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: by seventeen seventy two she had written enough to do it. 156 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 1: But to fund this book's publication, she needed to find 157 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: subscribers to commit to buying the work in advance. I 158 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:34,599 Speaker 1: imagine this as sort of a colonial version of Kickstarter. 159 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:38,880 Speaker 1: Either she or Susanna Wheatley, you're possibly both of them, 160 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:43,520 Speaker 1: working together, started placing advertisements for this forthcoming book, with 161 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: Ezekiel Russell as its printer, but sometime that summer Phillis 162 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:52,640 Speaker 1: turned her attention to publishing in England instead. The reasons 163 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: for this are not entirely clear. There are a number 164 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:57,680 Speaker 1: of accounts that claim that she wasn't able to find 165 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,880 Speaker 1: enough subscribers in the colonies, but They don't really cite 166 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:04,800 Speaker 1: primary sources for that, but there is a seventeen seventy 167 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:08,480 Speaker 1: three letter from one of her subscribers, John Andrews of Boston, 168 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:12,760 Speaker 1: who suggested that it was really for financial reasons. Basically 169 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:16,440 Speaker 1: she was getting better terms from a London press. The 170 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:21,120 Speaker 1: not enough subscribers argument usually comes along with the explanation 171 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:24,080 Speaker 1: that racism was the root cause of her not finding 172 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:27,359 Speaker 1: an audience in the colonies. And this was not racism 173 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 1: as in white readers maliciously not wanting to read the 174 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,080 Speaker 1: work of a black person. It was really racism, as 175 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: in white readers disbelieving that a black person could have 176 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 1: even written it. For the institution of slavery to exist 177 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: the way that it did in the American colonies, it 178 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,959 Speaker 1: had to rest on the idea that Africans were less 179 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: than human and were inherently less intelligent than Europeans. So 180 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: there were definitely people on both sides of the Atlantic 181 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:58,559 Speaker 1: who thought that Wheatley's poems must be some kind of fraud. 182 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 1: We we dealt with this by getting some of Boston's 183 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:06,440 Speaker 1: most prominent men to sign an attestation that she really 184 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: was the author of her own poems. This included Massachusetts 185 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 1: Governor Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver, the Reverend Mother Biles, 186 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:19,440 Speaker 1: and the Reverend Samuel, mother nephew and son of Cotton Mother, 187 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:24,720 Speaker 1: the Reverend Charles Chauncey, and John Hancock. A copy of 188 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:30,320 Speaker 1: this attestation, dated October seventeen seventy two, appeared in Lloyd's 189 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: Evening Post and British Chronicle in September of the following year, 190 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,400 Speaker 1: and a slightly reworded version of it was part of 191 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:40,160 Speaker 1: Wheatley's first book as well. And here's what the book 192 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:44,960 Speaker 1: version said. Quote, we whose names are underwritten do assure 193 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:48,840 Speaker 1: the world that the poems specified in the following page were, 194 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:52,720 Speaker 1: as we verily believe, written by Phillis, a young Negro 195 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:56,719 Speaker 1: girl who but a few years since brought an uncultivated 196 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:01,200 Speaker 1: barbarian from Africa, has ever since been and now is 197 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,200 Speaker 1: under the disadvantage of serving as a slave and a 198 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: family in this town. She has been examined by some 199 00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: of the best judges, and is thought qualified to write them. 200 00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 1: Although it's become part of the popular lure about Phyllis 201 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,960 Speaker 1: Wheatley that this took place, there's no actual evidence that 202 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:22,600 Speaker 1: the undersigned men actually met in a group and interrogated 203 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:25,520 Speaker 1: her about her work. There's even a children's book that 204 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:28,600 Speaker 1: hinges on this supposed meeting. It's actually a much more 205 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: likely scenario that there was a big meeting that was 206 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:35,160 Speaker 1: documented to have happened on October um, and that she 207 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 1: took advantage of this gathering of prominent men to stop 208 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: by and and say, hey, would you please sign this 209 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: at a station that I actually wrote my own work. 210 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 1: This at of station was not the only step that 211 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 1: she took and getting her book published in England, and 212 00:12:50,559 --> 00:12:53,319 Speaker 1: in getting people to believe that she had really written 213 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: what was in the book. She also wrote to William Legg, 214 00:12:56,679 --> 00:12:59,720 Speaker 1: the Earl of Dartmouth, in October of seventeen seventy two, 215 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 1: sending him a copy of a poem she had written 216 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:05,760 Speaker 1: about him. The Earl had just been named Secretary of 217 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:08,920 Speaker 1: State for the Colonies, and she both celebrated his appointment 218 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 1: in the poem and included another attestation of her authenticity, 219 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:18,080 Speaker 1: this one signed by Nathaniel Wheatley. Phillis also made a 220 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 1: third connection to Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, the 221 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:25,559 Speaker 1: one whose personal chaplain had been the Reverend George Whitefield, 222 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:29,760 Speaker 1: the Countess, Lord Dartmouth, and Susannah Wheatley were all connected 223 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,079 Speaker 1: through the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection, which was a network 224 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:37,880 Speaker 1: of evangelical churches and chapels. Phillis dedicated her manuscript to 225 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:41,440 Speaker 1: the Countess, who advocated for its publication in England through 226 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:46,400 Speaker 1: publisher Archibald Bill. Accompanied by Nathaniel Wheatley, Phillis went to 227 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 1: London in seventeen seventy three to oversee the publication of 228 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 1: her book. Sometimes this trip is also described as being 229 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:56,200 Speaker 1: for the sake of her health. She was definitely there 230 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,400 Speaker 1: to work on the book. By this point she'd established 231 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 1: such a name for herself that she had a huge 232 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,960 Speaker 1: list of notable people to visit. Probably the name that 233 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 1: people would be most likely to recognize today is Benjamin Franklin, 234 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:12,680 Speaker 1: who was at the time in London. If you've listened 235 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: to the Dido Elizabeth Bell's segment of our episode three 236 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:19,800 Speaker 1: Astonishing Bells, you'll recall that we talked about the Somerset Case, 237 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:22,680 Speaker 1: and this was a court case decided in seventeen seventy 238 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:26,280 Speaker 1: two in which Lord Mansfield ruled that an enslaved person 239 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: brought to England could not be sold back into slavery. 240 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: In some places, this was interpreted as freeing all slaves 241 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:36,600 Speaker 1: in England, which it didn't really do, but it did 242 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:39,800 Speaker 1: mean that when Phillis Wheatley arrived in London the following year, 243 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 1: under English law, she could not be forced back into slavery. 244 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:46,880 Speaker 1: It's possible that this is one of the reasons that 245 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: she decided to publish her book in England rather than 246 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: in the colonies. People in Boston definitely knew about the 247 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: Somerset case by the time she made that decision. Fellows 248 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,440 Speaker 1: sweet Lee's first and only published book, which was Poems 249 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: on various subjects religious and moral, was published on September one, 250 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy three. This is the first published volume of 251 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:10,880 Speaker 1: poetry by an African woman in the English speaking world. 252 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,760 Speaker 1: It included that attestation of her authenticity that we read earlier, 253 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: along with a letter from John Wheatley briefly detailing where 254 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: she came from and how she had been educated, and 255 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 1: concluding quote relation is given by her master, who bought 256 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:28,920 Speaker 1: her and with whom she now lives. The book's frontispiece 257 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:32,040 Speaker 1: featured a portrait of her ringed in the words Phillis 258 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 1: Wheatley negro servant to Mr John Wheatley of Boston. That 259 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:40,480 Speaker 1: portrait is likely the work of enslaved African painter Scipio Moorehead, 260 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,000 Speaker 1: who was also the subject of Wheatley's poem to s M. 261 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: A young African painter, on seeing his works. If you're 262 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:51,160 Speaker 1: wondering about that wording of negro servant, A lot of 263 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:54,760 Speaker 1: people who were enslaved were referred to as servants, especially 264 00:15:54,880 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: in England and New England. A few weeks after Phillis 265 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:04,000 Speaker 1: arrived in England, Susannah Wheatley became seriously ill, and Phillis 266 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:07,800 Speaker 1: returned to Massachusetts to attend to her. Her ship arrived 267 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: on September sixteenth, seventeen seventy three. Four days later, the 268 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: Boston Gazette noted her arrival among notable passengers aboard her ship, 269 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: calling her an extraordinary poetical genius. At some point not 270 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 1: long after that, Phillis was manumented by the Wheatlies, and 271 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:29,680 Speaker 1: a letter to David Wooster dated October eighteenth, seventeen seventy three, 272 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:34,040 Speaker 1: she wrote, quote, since my return to America, my master has, 273 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 1: at the desire of my friends in England, given me 274 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: my freedom Her book had received at least nine reviews 275 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: in British papers, and many of those reviews had really 276 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:47,840 Speaker 1: condemned the Wheatlies continued enslavement of her. So, even though 277 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: she could really not have been forced to return to 278 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,840 Speaker 1: slavery under the Somerset ruling, after having been in England, 279 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,200 Speaker 1: the wheat Laves made that official. Phillis also took the 280 00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:01,320 Speaker 1: precautionary step of sending a copy of her manumission papers 281 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 1: to a contact she had in London for safe keeping. 282 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: We're going to talk about what we know of Phillis 283 00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:09,960 Speaker 1: Wheatley's life as a free woman, including a famous exchange 284 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: with George Washington, but we're gonna first take a little 285 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: sponsor break. By the time Phillis Swheetlely returned from England, 286 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:25,639 Speaker 1: the Colonies were definitely headed toward war with Britain. That was, 287 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:30,200 Speaker 1: of course, the Revolutionary War. George Washington was named Commander 288 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,680 Speaker 1: in Chief of the Continental Army on June nineteenth, seventeen 289 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,120 Speaker 1: seventy five, and on October twenty six of that year, 290 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,679 Speaker 1: Phillis Sweetley sent him a poem she had written in 291 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:43,919 Speaker 1: his honor, along with a letter. The letter read quote, 292 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:47,199 Speaker 1: I have taken the freedom to address your excellency in 293 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,520 Speaker 1: the enclosed poem and intreat your acceptance, though I am 294 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 1: not insensible of its inaccuracies. You're being appointed by the 295 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 1: Grand Continental Congress to be General Lissimo of the Armies 296 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:02,680 Speaker 1: of North America. Together, the fame of your virtues excite sensations. 297 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:07,120 Speaker 1: Not easy to suppress your generosity. Therefore, I presume will 298 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 1: pardon the attempt, wishing your excellency all possible success in 299 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:15,480 Speaker 1: the great cause you are so generously engaged in. This 300 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:20,119 Speaker 1: poem ends with the widely quoted lines, Proceed great chief, 301 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,800 Speaker 1: with virtue on thy side. By every action, let the 302 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,399 Speaker 1: Goddess guide a crown, a mansion, and a throne that 303 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: shine with gold unfading. Washington be thine that Washington is 304 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:39,199 Speaker 1: in all caps. Washington's reply, dated February tenth of the 305 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:42,440 Speaker 1: following year, began with an apology for taking so long 306 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,359 Speaker 1: to answer. It then went on to say, quote the 307 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:48,520 Speaker 1: style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your great 308 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:52,040 Speaker 1: poetical talents, in honor of which, and as a tribute 309 00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:55,159 Speaker 1: justly due to you, I would have published the poem 310 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:58,360 Speaker 1: had I not been apprehensive that while I only meant 311 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,840 Speaker 1: to give the world this new instance of your genius. 312 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This and 313 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,840 Speaker 1: nothing else determined me not to give it place in 314 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge 315 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: or near headquarters, I shall be happy to see a 316 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,480 Speaker 1: person so favored by the muses and to whom nature 317 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:20,159 Speaker 1: has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I 318 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:26,640 Speaker 1: am with great respect, etcetera, etcetera. They're historians are divided 319 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:30,240 Speaker 1: about whether she actually met George Washington and Cambridge. But 320 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: it cracks me up that this letter is basically like 321 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,400 Speaker 1: I would have published this incredibly flattering poem you wrote 322 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 1: about me, but then people might think I'm vain. Perhaps 323 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,879 Speaker 1: to get around that accusation of vanity, George Washington also 324 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:47,600 Speaker 1: sent the poem to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Reid and closing 325 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 1: it in a letter that talked about all kinds of 326 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:55,160 Speaker 1: other various unrelated matters before concluding quote, I recollect nothing 327 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,919 Speaker 1: else worth giving you the trouble of unless you can 328 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,760 Speaker 1: be amused by reading a letter and pol addressed to 329 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,120 Speaker 1: me by Mrs or Miss Phyllis Wheatley and searching over 330 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:06,679 Speaker 1: a parcel of papers the other day, in order to 331 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: destroy such as were useless. I brought it to light again. 332 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: At first with a view of doing justice to her 333 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,920 Speaker 1: great poetical genius. I had a great mind to publish 334 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,159 Speaker 1: the poem, but not knowing whether it might be considered 335 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:23,680 Speaker 1: rather as a mark of my own vanity than as 336 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,879 Speaker 1: a compliment to her, I laid it aside until I 337 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:31,960 Speaker 1: came across it again in the manner just mentioned. Lieutenant 338 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:36,000 Speaker 1: Colonel Reid apparently took the hint. The poem was published 339 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania Magazine in April of seventeen seventy six, and 340 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,120 Speaker 1: other publications picked it up from there. With the onset 341 00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:47,520 Speaker 1: of the Revolutionary War, things got a lot more difficult 342 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:51,639 Speaker 1: for Phyllis Wheatley. Susannah Wheatley had died on March third, 343 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:55,520 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four. Then Nathaniel Wheatley had actually died a 344 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:59,399 Speaker 1: year before. His mother, Mary and John Wheatley both died 345 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: in seventy seventy eight, So the Wheatly's had kept Phillis 346 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,560 Speaker 1: in bondage, but they'd also essentially been filling the role 347 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,520 Speaker 1: of her patrons. Without their support, she had trouble selling 348 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:14,920 Speaker 1: poems and making ends meet, especially since the war meant 349 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:19,399 Speaker 1: that reader's attention was really focused on other matters. On 350 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,680 Speaker 1: April one, seventy eight, Phyllis Wheatly and a free black 351 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: man named John Peters announced their engagement. They married on 352 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,320 Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day of that year, which was November six. Most 353 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: biographers have not been very kind to John Peters. That 354 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: kind of paint him as a shiftless man who could 355 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,720 Speaker 1: not get his act together, But in reality, things were 356 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:45,640 Speaker 1: extremely difficult for free black people in New England during 357 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,160 Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War. Jobs were hard to find, the pay 358 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,160 Speaker 1: was often so low that it wasn't enough to live on. 359 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:55,600 Speaker 1: So John Peters tried his hand at running a grocery 360 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:58,119 Speaker 1: and a bakery in a saloon, but he just was 361 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,720 Speaker 1: not able to get a stable, finding antil footing under him. 362 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:04,440 Speaker 1: He also referred to himself as a doctor and at 363 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:07,399 Speaker 1: one point practice law, and some biographers have made a 364 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,119 Speaker 1: great big deal of the fact that he didn't have 365 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 1: a license to do either of those, even though there 366 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,400 Speaker 1: was not a licensing body that he could have applied 367 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,400 Speaker 1: to you at the time, Yeah, that was pretty common 368 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,600 Speaker 1: practice this in this for people to hang out their 369 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:26,200 Speaker 1: shingle and say they were a professional in a field 370 00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,560 Speaker 1: where today we would have a lot more um paperwork 371 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:33,680 Speaker 1: and applications and approvals before you could use those words. 372 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,720 Speaker 1: For sure, that is not exclusive to John Peters at all. 373 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,560 Speaker 1: We really don't know much at all about the last 374 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,200 Speaker 1: few years of Phillis Wheatley's life, except that they seem 375 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:48,000 Speaker 1: to have been lived in poverty. John Peters wound up 376 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 1: in and out of jail for debt, and Phillis may 377 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,359 Speaker 1: have had as many as three children, although there are 378 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,920 Speaker 1: no records kept of their births or deaths. She died, 379 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:00,280 Speaker 1: most likely due to complications from childbirth, on this number 380 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,879 Speaker 1: five sev four, at the age of thirty one, with 381 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:08,080 Speaker 1: most sources agreeing that her newborn died on that same day. 382 00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:11,640 Speaker 1: Before she died, Phillis sweetly had written a second book, 383 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,639 Speaker 1: which she had tried to publish in seventeen seventy nine, 384 00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:18,200 Speaker 1: but she couldn't find sufficient subscribers to do it again. 385 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:22,920 Speaker 1: This was during the Revolutionary War. It was difficult. That 386 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: manuscript unfortunately has been lost. John Peters does seem to 387 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,160 Speaker 1: have gotten his financial worries straightened out after the war 388 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,000 Speaker 1: was over and led an upstanding life from that point. 389 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,920 Speaker 1: He is the last person known to have had access 390 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,680 Speaker 1: to that manuscript. He may have taken it with him 391 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,359 Speaker 1: when he eventually left Boston, but exactly where he went 392 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,439 Speaker 1: or what happened to the manuscript is just not clear. 393 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: Fifty seven of Phyllis's poems survived today. Forty six of 394 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:56,240 Speaker 1: them were published during her lifetime. In nine six, what 395 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,119 Speaker 1: was believed to be her last poem was unearthed. That 396 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: was titled an Elegy on Leaving, and it was published 397 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: in Armenian Magazine, which would later become Methodist Magazine, in 398 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:11,240 Speaker 1: July four. This magazine was edited by John Wesley, the 399 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:14,240 Speaker 1: founder of Methodism, and it seems as though whoever sent 400 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,679 Speaker 1: the poem to him incorrectly attributed it. According to research 401 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,040 Speaker 1: by Caroline Wiggington, it was really the work of Mary Wattley, 402 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,160 Speaker 1: first published in her collection Original Poems on several occasions 403 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 1: twenty years earlier. This was probably an honest mistake somebody made. 404 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:35,159 Speaker 1: As we've talked about before, spellings were not very standardized 405 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,200 Speaker 1: at this period, so it was it would have been 406 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:44,280 Speaker 1: easy for Wheatly and what Lely or Watterly to have 407 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: been spelled in nearly the same or exactly the same way. 408 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:52,280 Speaker 1: During and after Phillis Wheatley's lifetime, her work was used 409 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:56,360 Speaker 1: by abolitionists as evidence that Africans were humans with souls 410 00:24:56,400 --> 00:25:00,520 Speaker 1: and intelligence equal to that of Europeans. But not everyone 411 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: had seen her work as evidence of the intrinsic humanity 412 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,879 Speaker 1: and equality of Africans. Thomas Jefferson criticized her work heavily 413 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: in Notes on the State of Virginia in seven he wrote, quote, 414 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches 415 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,840 Speaker 1: and poetry among the Blacks. It's misery enough, God knows, 416 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:25,080 Speaker 1: but no poetry. Love is the particular eastrom of the poet. 417 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:29,320 Speaker 1: Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, 418 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:34,840 Speaker 1: not the imagination. Religion indeed, has has produced a Phyllis Wheatly, 419 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,919 Speaker 1: but it could not produce a poet. The compositions composed 420 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:44,159 Speaker 1: under her name are below the dignity of criticism. I 421 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:48,840 Speaker 1: want to time travel and maybe um uh yeah, I 422 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: want to say bad things to Thomas Jefferson. That's what's up. 423 00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:57,400 Speaker 1: Aside from Jefferson's disparagement, Wheatley's work started to fall out 424 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: of favor in the nineteenth century, as it was overshadowed 425 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: by slave narratives and the work of people like Frederick Douglas. 426 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,399 Speaker 1: This was especially true since Wheatley's enslavement had taken place 427 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,560 Speaker 1: in such relative comfort. We don't want to downplay the 428 00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,200 Speaker 1: fact that she was still an enslaved person, but there 429 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,639 Speaker 1: were certainly stories that were a lot darker out there circulating. 430 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: So her stood in sharp contrast to the writing that 431 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,640 Speaker 1: was tied at the time to the Antebellum South. By 432 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,800 Speaker 1: the turn of the twentieth century, writers and critics were 433 00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,359 Speaker 1: pointing out a range of perceived shortcomings and phillips sweet 434 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,680 Speaker 1: Lea's work, including that she wasn't personal enough, she wasn't 435 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 1: genuine enough, and she cared too little for other enslaved Africans. 436 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,520 Speaker 1: And the words of James Weldon Johnson, who was writing 437 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:45,400 Speaker 1: in the nine preface to the Book of American Negro Poetry, 438 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:49,320 Speaker 1: quote one looks in vain for some outburst or even 439 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,080 Speaker 1: complaint against the bondage of her people, for some agonizing 440 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,720 Speaker 1: cry about her native land. And two poems she refers 441 00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,440 Speaker 1: definitely to Africa as her home. But in each instance 442 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,719 Speaker 1: there seems to be under the sentiment of the lines, 443 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,919 Speaker 1: a feeling of almost smug contentment at her own escape 444 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:13,040 Speaker 1: therefrom In the early to mid twentieth century, people started 445 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,000 Speaker 1: to write Philis Wheatlely off as a second rate imitator 446 00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: of Alexander Pope. This sort of criticism really escalated in 447 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,160 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, especially within the Black arts movement, which 448 00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:27,520 Speaker 1: saw Wheatly's work as not nearly political or radical enough. 449 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:31,240 Speaker 1: Writing in The New Yorker in two thousand three, Dr 450 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,880 Speaker 1: Henry Lewis Gates Jr. Described it this way, quote too 451 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,359 Speaker 1: black to be taken seriously by white critics in the 452 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, Wheatley was now considered too white to interest 453 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,080 Speaker 1: black critics critics in the twentie A lot of this 454 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:50,399 Speaker 1: criticism cites Wheatly's poem on being Brought from Africa to America, 455 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,679 Speaker 1: and the first stanza of this poem reads, twas mercy 456 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,280 Speaker 1: brought me from my pagan land, taught my benighted soul 457 00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,800 Speaker 1: to understand that there's a God and there's savior too. 458 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:06,560 Speaker 1: Once I redemption neither sought nor new so. In other words, 459 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 1: she's describing being brought from Africa to America as a 460 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,880 Speaker 1: slave as something merciful because otherwise she wouldn't have learned 461 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,919 Speaker 1: about the existence of God and sought redemption. But the 462 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:22,000 Speaker 1: poem's second stanza goes on to condemn racism and hypocrisy 463 00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:26,080 Speaker 1: among Christian slave owners, admonishing them to remember that, to 464 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: use her word, negroes are also human souls who are 465 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:32,840 Speaker 1: able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Here is the 466 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,720 Speaker 1: second half of that poem. Some view are sable race 467 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:42,440 Speaker 1: with scornful eye. Their color is a diabolic dye. Remember, Christians, 468 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,440 Speaker 1: negroes black as cane may be refined and joined the 469 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:50,800 Speaker 1: angelic train. It's also worth noting that this poem, which 470 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:54,280 Speaker 1: has been used to just write phil as sweetly off completely, 471 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,360 Speaker 1: was written when she was about fourteen years old, and 472 00:28:57,400 --> 00:28:59,520 Speaker 1: if she had lived longer, it would have been thought 473 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,000 Speaker 1: of as part of her juvenile and not as part 474 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:05,800 Speaker 1: of her mature body of work, and criticisms that she 475 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: never condemned slavery are simply not accurate. Here's a stanza 476 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: from to the right Honorable William Earl of Dartmouth, which 477 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,360 Speaker 1: we were referenced earlier, quote, should you, my lord, while 478 00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,560 Speaker 1: you peruse my song wonder from whence my love of 479 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:24,320 Speaker 1: freedom sprung whence flow these wishes for the common good? 480 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,480 Speaker 1: By feeling hearts alone best understood, I young in life, 481 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: by seeming cruel fate was snatched from Africa's fancied happy seat. 482 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: What pangs excruciating must molest, what sorrows labor in my 483 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 1: parents breast stealed? Was that soul? And by no misery 484 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:47,080 Speaker 1: moved that from a father seized his babe beloved. Such 485 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,800 Speaker 1: such my case? And can I then but pray others 486 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:55,160 Speaker 1: may never feel tyrannic sway? And that same book introduction 487 00:29:55,360 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 1: James Weldon Johnson dismissed that poem as unimpassioned. In the 488 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,280 Speaker 1: last few decades, critics and scholars have started to take 489 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:08,040 Speaker 1: a closer look at Wheatley's actual writing, which had previously 490 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,200 Speaker 1: been overshadowed by her biography and her general noteworthiness as 491 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: an enslaved black poet during the colonial era. Some of 492 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:21,320 Speaker 1: this traces possible African influences in her work. Several literary critics, 493 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:25,720 Speaker 1: including John C. Shields and Mary Catherine Loving, also interpreted 494 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,120 Speaker 1: her work as a lot more subversive than previous criticism 495 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,400 Speaker 1: had given it credit for. So it's hard to draw 496 00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 1: comparisons to specific African cultures because Africa is not a monolith, 497 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 1: and we don't know exactly where philis Wheatly was from 498 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: or what who were people in Africa would have been, 499 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000 Speaker 1: but several historians have noted that multiple West African people's 500 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: used funeral elegies as a central element of community life, 501 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: with these songs most often being performed by young women. 502 00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:00,160 Speaker 1: Nearly a third of wheatly surviving poems are elegies, and 503 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,800 Speaker 1: structurally they have more in common with African elegies than 504 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:08,320 Speaker 1: with elegaic poems from when she was living written in Europe. 505 00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 1: Another potential African influence on Wheatley's work is in its imagery. 506 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,800 Speaker 1: Margaretta Matilda O'Dell wrote the first biography, which was published 507 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,480 Speaker 1: with an addition of her poems in eighteen thirty four, 508 00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: and in the introduction to that biography, O'Dell claimed, quote, 509 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 1: she does not seem to have preserved any remembrance of 510 00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,719 Speaker 1: the place of her nativity or of her parents, accepting 511 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:34,160 Speaker 1: the simple circumstance that her mother poured out water before 512 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,280 Speaker 1: the sun at his rising, in reference no doubt to 513 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:41,640 Speaker 1: an ancient African custom. The rising sun is frequently a 514 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 1: repeated theme in Wheatley's poetry, as well as plays on 515 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: the words involving son as in the Male Child and 516 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: son as in the bright blazing Object in the sky. 517 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:55,960 Speaker 1: And then there's the fact that Wheatley was, based on 518 00:31:56,120 --> 00:32:00,720 Speaker 1: everything we know of her, obviously very smart, her making 519 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:04,720 Speaker 1: connections in London and traveling there after the Somerset case 520 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,960 Speaker 1: was decided to suggest that she was also politically very savvy. 521 00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:13,360 Speaker 1: She also removed a lot of explicitly pro patriot poems 522 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,280 Speaker 1: from that collection of poetry before having it printed in London, 523 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 1: and she replaced them with ones that would be more 524 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,360 Speaker 1: acceptable to a more loyalist audience. So it's really reasonable 525 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,000 Speaker 1: to conclude that she understood how she was being constrained 526 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: by the world that she was living in, and she 527 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,680 Speaker 1: was crafting poems to be well received within that world. 528 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,760 Speaker 1: So instead of writing poems explicitly about the evils of slavery, 529 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,480 Speaker 1: she wrote poems about loving liberty and freedom, which within 530 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 1: her overwhelmingly white audience and the colonies, would be read 531 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:49,880 Speaker 1: as patriotism instead of as criticism. Do you have some 532 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: listener mailments? Tracy? What I have is actually a link 533 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:59,280 Speaker 1: somebody shared on our Facebook page. UM the the listener 534 00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,120 Speaker 1: is Angel, who posted something on our Facebook wall, and 535 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,160 Speaker 1: the note just said check this out, So you don't 536 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,000 Speaker 1: even have to write a lot for us to read 537 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 1: your message on the air. So what she wanted us 538 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:15,400 Speaker 1: to check out was a post from Cincinnati Museum Center 539 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:18,479 Speaker 1: which answered some of the questions that we had in 540 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: our episode about the Last Carolina parakeet about whether Incas, 541 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,960 Speaker 1: who was the last Carolina parakeet, had been preserved through 542 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,840 Speaker 1: taxidermy after his death or not. And so the answer, 543 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: according to this article that Angel shared with us is maybe. Um. 544 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,800 Speaker 1: According to this blog post at the Cincinnati Museum Center, 545 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Zoo announced that Incas would be shipped to 546 00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:44,120 Speaker 1: the Smithsonian, just like Martha had been a few years before. 547 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:48,160 Speaker 1: Martha was the last Passenger pigeon, but Incas is not 548 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:54,200 Speaker 1: currently in the Smithsonian's collection. There are, however, two unlabeled 549 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,200 Speaker 1: Carolina parakeets in the Cincinnati Museum Center collection, and one 550 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,480 Speaker 1: of them could be Incas, but it's really unclear. We 551 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:04,880 Speaker 1: just do not know. Um. That explains though, why I 552 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,000 Speaker 1: could not confirm that fact before we recorded the episode, 553 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:12,960 Speaker 1: because it's a little bit of a mystery. If you 554 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: would like to write to us about this or another podcast, 555 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 1: or at history podcasts at how stuff works dot com. 556 00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,120 Speaker 1: We're also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash missed 557 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:23,799 Speaker 1: in History and on Twitter at miss in History. Our 558 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,920 Speaker 1: Instagram and our Pinterest are also under the name missed 559 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,960 Speaker 1: in History. You can come to our website, which is 560 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: missed in history dot com, and you will find show 561 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:37,000 Speaker 1: notes for all of the episodes that Holly and I 562 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:39,080 Speaker 1: have done together. Those list all the sources that we 563 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:42,120 Speaker 1: used in the episode. You'll find a searchable archive of 564 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:45,960 Speaker 1: every episode that we have ever done. Uh and if 565 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,080 Speaker 1: you would like to subscribe to our show if you 566 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:51,520 Speaker 1: have not already, you can do that on Apple Podcasts, 567 00:34:51,560 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: Google Play, and anywhere else you get podcasts. For more 568 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:03,240 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how staff 569 00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 1: works dot com. M