81. Spelnotes: Phillis Wheatley The wheatley's were the best opportunity for the expression phillis' talent. Thewheatley's educated phillis and raised her as if she were their own child. http://www.wcenter.spelman.edu/English323/KENDRASHAW/KENDRASHAW/Wheatley.html

Back to Engish 323 page) Phillis Wheatley was a privileged slave girl, born in 1753 and died in 1784, at the young age of 31. As a child Phillis was kidnapped, and brought over to America and sold to the Wheatley family. "The Wheatley family were part of that religious missionary movement that advocated sufficient education of Indians and Africans to facilitate their salvation and to develop their evangelical skills" (Foster 31). The Wheatley's were the best opportunity for the expression Phillis' talent. "Without their financial support and their excellent social contacts, Wheatley's plans all came to grief" (Kafka 46). The Wheatley's educated Phillis and raised her as if she were their own child. "Wheatley (Phillis) studied the popular literary forms and books that they suggested" (Foster 32). She was exposed to the typical New England education, after which, the Wheatley's "realized that they had a child prodigy on their hands" (Kafka 39). She then studied European contemporary poets (primarily Pope, and through him, Homer), history, religious principles, the Latin satirists Horace and Terence, as well as Virgil and Ovid, and geography. Wheatley knew that her access to libraries, tutoring, and especially her publication opportunities were only possible by staying in good graces of her benefactors.

82. Phillis Wheatley Exhibit phillis wheatley An Exhibit in Honor of Women's Month, March 2000 This copy is somewhatunique for retaining the frontispiece portrait of phillis wheatley. http://library.tamu.edu/cushing/wheatley/newindex.htm

HOME CONTACT US Phillis Wheatley: An Exhibit in Honor of Women's Month, March 2000 View Exhibit Phillis Wheatley is considered the first African-American poet, a status which makes her all the more important given that she made her mark in a time when America had few distinct literary voices of any ethnicity. She was brought to this country at the age of eight by slave traders and sold to John Wheatley, a prosperous Boston tailor, who educated her along with his own children. Her charm, quick wit, and an amazing facility for language made her something of a sensation among Boston intellectuals. She wrote her first verses at the age of 13, and in 1773 was taken to England where she was received in the highest circles of the aristocracy. The selections featured in the exhibit come from the first edition of her Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral (London, 1773), which is considered a high spot by collectors of American literature. This copy is somewhat unique for retaining the frontispiece portrait of Phillis Wheatley. Many copies found today do not contain this page. Some critics have speculated that early booksellers may have removed the frontispiece for fear of offending potential buyers. Others maintain that some copies were simply issued without the portrait. Whatever the case, all Wheatley scholars agree that the image is a very accurate likeness. Tradition has it that Mrs. John Wheatley, who was very fond of Phillis, kept a framed copy of the frontispiece above her fireplace.

83. Phillis Wheatley: A Life Of Triumph Over Obstacles -- Brown Quarterly -- V. 1, N phillis wheatley A Life of Triumph Over Obstacles Omofolabo Ajayi phillis wheatleypassed into eternity of December 5, 1784. She was about 31 years old. http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/01-1/01-1f.htm

Buffalo Soldiers Book Nook Volume 1, No. 1 (August 1996) Special Introductory Edition Phillis Wheatley: A Life of Triumph Over Obstacles Omofolabo Ajayi Click an image to read its caption. Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka, Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film and in the Women's Studies Program at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, presented "A Conversation with Phillis Wheatley" during the Brown Foundation's National Symposium entitled "American History Unmasked: Remembering Plessy vs. Ferguson" May 16-18, 1996. The following selection reproduces her article which was published in the Kansas Humanities Council's History Alive! Study Guide (1995) pp. 3-5. Phillis Wheatley defied all expectations of her class, race, and gender to become an internationally celebrated poet. She wrote herself from the obscurity of slavery into the annals of the American literary scene. Even though she later died in near obscurity, the words she wove in her lifetime immortalize her memory. Today, her works continue to generate interest from scholars and to inspire the student of life's struggles and achievements. When Phillis Wheatley landed in America on July 11, 1761, a frail West African girl barely 8 years old, she could not guess the extraordinary life that awaited her. As she stood on the auction block in Boston, she must have been terrified and no doubt confused by the strange faces and the strange language spoken around her. Brutally snatched from her homeland, she was now homeless, without a country, without a family, without identity. Based on the horrors she had experienced on the slave ship during the "middle passage," she could scarcely have imagined anything better awaiting herthat is provided she had strength left to do any imagining.

84. Phillis Wheatley When phillis wheatley wrote the above letter to Samson Occom, in February1774, she was barely twenty years old. These blisteringly http://www.dorothyprince.com/philliswheatley.asp

Poet On the eve of the American Revolution an amazing twenty-year-old named Phillis Wheatly wrote about slave owners: ..In every human breast God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; It is impatient of oppression, and pants for Deliverance; and by the Leave of our modern Egyptians I will assert, that the same Principle Lives in us. God grant Deliverance in His own Way and Time, and get him honour upon Those whose avarice impels them to countenance and help forward that Calamities of their fellow creatures. This I desire not For their Hurt, but to convince them of the strange Absurdity of their Conduct whose Words and Actions are So diametrically opposite. How well the cry for liberty, And the reverse Disposition for the exercise of oppressive Power over others agree.... When Phillis Wheatley wrote the above letter to Samson Occom, in February 1774, she was barely twenty years old. These blisteringly direct and condemning words are uncharacteristic of the "face" that the young poet had on most occasions shown to her world. Wheatley had been in the strange new world for most of her life and had seen and suffered much in her short time. Stolen from her African homeland, Wheatley was sold on the slave block in Boston. Educated in the pious home of John and Susanna Wheatley, she accepted the Christian faith offered her in the Old South Church. She had won national and international acclaim as a gifted writer of poetry, and she had made the voyage across the Atlantic three times. But her greatest

85. BBC - History - Phillis Wheatley (c.1753 - 1784) phillis wheatley was America's first black poet. phillis wheatley (c.1753 1784). phillis wheatley was America's first black poet. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wheatley_phillis.shtml

CATEGORIES TV RADIO COMMUNICATE ... INDEX SEARCH TUESDAY 25th March 2003 Text only BBC Homepage History Topics ... Help Like this page? Send it to a friend! Phillis Wheatley (c.1753 - 1784) Phillis Wheatley was America's first black poet. Born in Senegal, Africa, around 1753, she was transported to Boston in 1761 to be sold on the slave market. John Wheatley, a tailor from Boston, purchased her as a child to serve his wife. Soon Wheatley was accepted as a member of the family and Mary Wheatley, John's daughter, was made her personal tutor. She learned English with remarkable speed and although she never attended a formal school, also learned Greek and Latin. At the age of 13 Wheatley began writing poetry. Her first published poem 'On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin' appeared in the Newport Mercury in 1767. In the following years, a number of poems appeared in various publications in and around Boston. The publication of a poem on the death of the evangelical preacher George Whitefield in 1770 made Wheatley a sensation. As a result Countess Selina of Huntingdon, a close friend of Whitefield, invited Wheatley to England and assisted the young woman in the publication of her poems. In 1773, a volume was published in London as Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

86. From Revolution To Reconstruction: Outlines: Outline Of American Literature: Dem An Outline of American Literature. by Kathryn VanSpanckeren. Democratic Originsand Revolutionary Writers, 17761820 phillis wheatley (c. 1753-1784). http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/LIT/wheatley.htm

FRtR Outlines American Literature Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776-1820 > Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) An Outline of American Literature by Kathryn VanSpanckeren Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776-1820: Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) Index Given the hardships of life in early America, it is ironic that some of the best poetry of the period was written by an exceptional slave woman. The first African-American author of importance in the United States, Phyllis Wheatley was born in Africa and brought to Boston, Massachusetts, when she was about seven, where she was purchased by the pious and wealthy tailor John Wheatley to be a companion for his wife. The Wheatleys recognized Phillis's remarkable intelligence and, with the help of their daughter, Mary, Phillis learned to read and write. Wheatley's poetic themes are religious, and her style, like that of Philip Freneau, is neoclassical. Among her best-known poems are "To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works," a poem of praise and encouragement for another talented black, and a short poem showing her strong religious sensitivity filtered through her experience of Christian conversion. This poem unsettles some contemporary critics whites because they find it conventional, and blacks because the poem does not protest the immorality of slavery. Yet the work is a sincere expression; it confronts white racism and asserts spiritual equality. Indeed, Wheatley was the first to address such issues confidently in verse, as in "On Being Brought from Africa to America":

87. BIBLIOGRAPHY – GEORGE MOSES HORTON wheatley, phillis, Whitman, Albery Allson, Odell, Margaretta Matilda, Horton, GeorgeMoses. The works of phillis wheatley A. Whitman. wheatley, phillis. http://www.unc.edu/campus/sigs/horton/bibliographyrevised.htm

BIBLIOGRAPHY – GEORGE MOSES HORTON Allen, William G. Wheatley, Banneker, and Horton with selections from the poetical works of Wheatley and Horton . Salem, N.H. : Ayer Company, 1992, 1849. Allen, William G Wheatley, Banneker, and Horton; with selections from the poetical works of Wheatley and Horton, and the letter of Washington to Wheatley, and of Jefferson to Banneker Boston: D. Laing, 1849. Allen, William G., Horton, George Moses, Placido, Juan,. The African poets, Horton and Placido Dublin : [R.D. Webb], 1849-1853. Brawley, Benjamin Griffith. “Three negro poets: Horton, Mrs. Harper and Whitman.” Journal of Negro History, 1917: 384-392.. Buckner, Sally. ; Barrax, Gerald W. ; Stephenson, Shelby. North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame Raleigh, N.C.: NCSU Extension/Publications, 1995. Carroll, William. Naked genius: the poetry of George Moses Horton, slave bard of North Carolina, Clark, Margaret Goff. ; Cary, Louis F. Their eyes on the stars: four Black writers Illinois: Garrard Pub. Co., 1973. Cobb, Collier. An American man of letters . Chapel Hill, N.C.? : s.n., 1909.

88. Poetry Archives @ EMule.com phillis Wheatly. A Rebus, By IB A BIRD delicious to the taste,; An Answer To TheRebus, By The Author Of These Poems THE poet asks, and phillis can't refus; http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=overview&author=59

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