May 20, 1965

Negro Was First U.S. Poetess

An advertisement in the Boston Gazette of May 24, 1761 read: "A parcel of hearty, likely negroes, imported last week from Africa, to be sold. Inquire of Captain Wickham or Mr. John Avery at his house near the White Horse."

It was in such a "Parcel of negroes" that a young girl of seven or eight — not so hearty as beguiling — came to this country in 1761.

In the slave market — a dark and crowded old shed on the Boston Wharf—she caught the eye of Mrs. John Wheatley, wife of a local merchant, who bought her for a house servant.

The girl was given the name Phillis and like most slaves, adopted the family name of her owners.

Phillis was shy and sensitive. Her first few days in the Wheatley household were terrifying for her. Sensing this, the kind family paid her special attention. She responded to this treatment and soon her natural sweetness won the whole family. She became the household pet.

The children of the Wheatley family began teaching Phillis to read. In a little more than a year, she astonished everyone by reading the Bible to them with ease.

Phillis taught herself to write, practicing long into the night in her garret room. In the same manner she learned Latin.

One day she discovered a copy of Alexander Pope's translation of Homer. Like many before her, Phillis' imagination and creative powers were stirred by this book. She read other classical works — Virgil, Terence, Ovid, etc. — but the beauty of Pope's imagery and emotion still possessed her thoughts.

Soon she began creating poetry of her own —

"While Homer paints, lo! circumfus'd in air,

Celestial Gods in mortal forms appear;

Swift as they move etc. etc. . . ."

Her poetry reached the public eye; some were published. Critics said of her: "She has a sympathetic mind and a fluency of pen."

She was regarded by many as a prodigy and a kind of poet laureate of Boston. She submitted poems on the occasions of such things as deaths, marriages and trips. Yet she remained a household servant.

At the age of 16, Phillis joined a church. Her poems took on a religious tone. But there was still an undercurrent of her life in her native land. She had recollections of her mother saluting the rising sun by pouring out a libation of water and her father's grief when she was torn from his arms to be sold into slavery. She wrote:

"Should you, my Lord, while you peruse my song,

Wonder from whence my love of freedom sprung,

When now these wishes for the common good,

By feeling hearts alone best understood —

I young in life, by seeming cruel fate,

Was snatched from Afric's fancied happy seat."

In 1773, a book of her poetry was published: "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. By Phillis Wheatley, negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley of Boston in New England."

At first many people in other parts of America and in England regarded the publication as a hoax. The publisher thereupon asked eminent men of Massachusetts to sign a certificate declaring that Phillis Wheatley was the author.

John Hancock, famed Revolutionary statesman, was among the signers and organizers of the cause. He begged the governor of Massachusetts to add his signature to the document.

The governor, who had not met Phillis, was dubious and so visited the Wheatley home. While discussing the matter with Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley, Phillis served tea to him. He, not quite understanding the whole thing and not being aware of her presence, said, "I don't believe it possible that a slave could write, let alone write poetry."

Phillis left the room and wrote a short verse with his words in it. When the governor asked to see her, she presented him with the poem. He was so astonished at seeing his own words in her poem that he signed the certificate without hesitation.

A short time later, Phillis visited London with the Wheatley family. There was a strong emancipation movement in England at that time, headed by the Countess of Huntington. She held a reception for Phillis which was attended by the aristocracy and fashionable people of the day.

But in America, Phillis Wheatley was regarded as more than a freak or example for display. Some of her poetry was published widely in newspapers and enjoyed throughout the colonies. Unfortunately, like much entertainment of popular appeal, these poems were not her best.

Thomas Jefferson expressed scorn for these works when he wrote in "Notes on Virginia," "Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Wheatley, but it could not produce a poet.

His opinion may have been different if he had read some of her more beautiful lines:

"Aurora, hail, and all the thousand dyes

Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies!

The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,

On ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;

Harmonious lays the feather'd race resume,

Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume."

Despite her unhappy beginning in this country, Phillis loved it and believed in the Revolutionary fight for freedom. When Washington took command of the troops in 1775, she sent him a poem with a prayer for his success. He replied to her with great praise for her work.

She married, a negro, John Peters, who was a one-time shop-keeper, baker, lawyer, and doctor — successful at none. The strain of their poor and difficult life was too much for the frail girl and she died at the age of 30.

Author: Lindsey Williams