The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies

The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies

I chose Phyllis Wheatley because she was the first African American to publish a book in North America. She published a book of poetry during a time when most slaves were forbidden to learn to read or write. Her life was an inspiring example to future generations of African Americans. Phyllis Wheatley's success as a writer removed any thoughts that African slaves were not as intelligent as their captives. Her work proved that African Americans were not inferior. Phyllis Wheatley stated that her enslavement was a blessing that gave her the opportunities she enjoyed as a writer. Instead of rebelling and looking for a way to escape, she took a different route. She learned all of the religious, social, and cultural ways of her captives and their country. Phyllis became well educated and well read. Choosing that path took Phyllis through doors that would have otherwise been shut to her as a slave. Phyllis Wheatley made the best of her situation. Through her poetry, Wheatley is credited with helping found African American Literature.

Phyllis Wheatley was America's first black poet. Born in Senegal, Africa in 1753, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 7. John Wheatley, a wealthy tailor, and his wife, Susannah, purchased her. Although she was originally brought into the Wheatley household as a servant and attendant to Susannah Wheatley, Phyllis was soon accepted as a member of the family, and was raised with Wheatley's other two children. The Wheatleys encouraged Phyllis to learn. Phyllis quickly learned to read and write English. At the age of twelve, she was reading Greek and Latin classics and passages from the Bible. She learned this without ever attending a formal school. At the age of thirteen, Phyllis wrote her first poem. Her first poem was published in the Newport Mercury newspaper in 1767. Six years later Phyllis Wheatley traveled to London and with the help of Selina Hasting, the Countess of Huntingdon, published a volume of her poetry. In 1773, her book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published. Due to Phyllis' popularity as a poet in England and the United States, she was given her freedom. On October 18, 1773, soon after she returned home to Boston, Phyllis Wheatley was emancipated. As a free woman, she published an antislavery letter and a poem to George Washington, whom she had met. Washington wrote to Wheatley thanking her and praising her "great poetical talents."