| Phyllis Wheatley is regarded as
America's first black poet. She was born in Senegal, Africa, about 1753 and
brought to America aboard a slave ship at about the age of seven. John and
Susannah Wheatley bought her for three pounds at a slave auction in Boston in
1761 to be a personal servant of Mrs. Wheatley. The family had three other
slaves, and all were treated with respect. Phyllis was soon accepted as one of
the family, which included being raised and educated with the Wheatley's twin
15-year-old children, Mary and Nathaniel. At that time, most females, even from
better families, could not read and write, but Mary was probably one of the best
educated young women in Boston. Mary wanted to become a teacher, and in fact, it
was Mary who decided to take charge of Phyllis's education. Phyllis soon
displayed her remarkable talents. At the age of twelve she was reading the Greek
and Latin classics and passages from the Bible. And eventually, Mrs. Wheatley
decided Phyllis should become a Christian. At the age of thirteen Phyllis wrote her first poem. She became a Boston sensation after she wrote a poem on the death of the evangelical preacher George Whitfield in 1770. It became common practice in Boston to have "Mrs. Wheatley's Phyllis" read poetry in polite society. Mary married in 1771, and Phyllis later moved to the country because of poor health, as a teacher and caretaker to a farmer's three children. Mary had tried to interest publishers in Phyllis's poems but once they heard she was a Negro they weren't interested. Then in 1773 Phyllis went with Nathaniel, who was now a businessman, to London. It was thought that a sea voyage might improve her health. Thirty-nine of her poems were published in London as Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. It was the first book published by a black American. In 1775 Phyllis wrote a poem extolling the accomplishments of George Washington and sent it to him. He responded by praising her talents and inviting her to visit his headquarters. After both of her benefactors died in 1777, and Mary died in 1778, Phyllis was freed as a slave. She married in 1778, moved away from Boston, and had three children. But after the unhappy marriage, she moved back to Boston, and died in poverty at the age of thirty. |