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PHILLIS WHEATLEY
(c. 1753-1784)
• born in Africa (perhaps modern Senegal or Gambia)
• 1761:
o 6,7,8 -
o taken as slave, slave ship to Boston
o sold to Wheatleys
o as companion for wife
• Wheatleys:
o wealthy tailor, John Wheatley
o Mrs. Susannah Wheatley
o “Phillis” = name of the slave ship that brought her
o “enlightened Christians” (early abolitionists)
o ( convert her to evangelical Christianity
o ( educate Phillis
▪ (highly irregular – white women = not educated!!)
▪ precocious child with remarkable talents
▪ recognized Phillis's intelligence
• education:
o taught to read & write
o studied Bible
o read Latin poets
• influences:
o Milton, Pope, Gray
• popularity:
o poem eulogizing the Reverend George Whitfield
o published in local newspapers
o Enlightenment:
▪ “the triumph of the human spirit over the circumstances of birth”
• publication:
o unable to find patronage (financial backing) in colonies
o @ 19/20 to England w/Wheatley’s son Nathaniel
o support of the Countess of Huntingdon
o ( Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)
▪ = inauguration of the black American literary tradition
▪ = inauguration of the black women literary tradition
• freedom: (manumission)
o granted by Susannah in fall 1773
▪ Susannah = dead 1774
▪ John = dead 1778
▪ Phillis = married 1778 (John Peters, freedman, nothing known @ him)
o harder to publish
o never published again, planned 2nd book, letters (proposed in 1779)
▪ 33 poems
▪ 13 letters
o all poems & letters = lost
o died in poverty
▪ last 2 children
▪ 3rd was dying with her (soon followed – buried together – unmarked grave
• STYLE:
o conventions of neoclassical verse
▪ rhymed couplets
▪ rhyme scheme = AABBCCDD…..
▪ pentameter (10 beats per line)
o religious piety
▪ sin
▪ Christ’s sacrifice, redeeming blood of Crucifixion
▪ (PURITAN)
o American independence
o careful approach to potentially controversial subjects
o restraint and discipline =
▪ lack of racial consciousness or was disinterest in denouncing slavery
▪ OR
▪ evidence of a meaningful commitment to addressing—and protesting—slavery and racial inequality
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
• Wheatley recounts the effects of being introduced in America
o both to Christianity
o and to racist assumptions about black inferiority
’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.
• 1. What kind of audience do you think Wheatley was intending to reach with this poem? Whom does she address directly? What does she want to persuade her readers of?
• 2. In line 2, what does the speaker say she has been “taught to understand”? How does her understanding compare to the understanding of the “Christians” she mentions in line 7?
• 3. How would you describe the tone of this poem? Grateful? Rebellious? Measured? Humble? Outraged? Apologetic? A mixture of these?
|SUBVERSION |
|question from within the system |
|deconstructing claims |
|pointing out flaws, errors, heresies, hypocrisies |
|Columbus: just king would never do this to me after all I’ve done for him |
|De Las Casas: Christians acting un-Christian |
|Cortez: carefully/accidentally heretical w/o risking death |
|Nunez: Christian slavers oxymoron |
|Puritans: not separatists |
|Ben Franklin: in female pseudonyms, for female rights; in allegory as for independence |
|Hamilton, Jay, Madison: in pseudonym (Publius) |
|Wheatley: question Christians as slavers, w/o getting killed |
Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid”
"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?
And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?"
"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she.
"You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks,
Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks;
And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!"
"Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined," said she.
-"At home in the barton you said 'thee' and 'thou,'
And 'thik oon,' and 'theäs oon,' and 't'other'; but now
Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!"
"Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she.
"Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak
But now I'm bewitched by your delicate cheek,
And your little gloves fit as on any la-dy!"
"We never do work when we're ruined," said she.
"You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream,
And you'd sigh, and you'd sock; but at present you seem
To know not of megrims or melancho-ly!"
"True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she.
"I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,
And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!"
"My dear a raw country girl, such as you be,
Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined," said she.
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