Phillis Wheatley

On April 1, 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a handsome and well-mannered free black, whom she had known for five years. He aspired to be great, calling himself Dr. Peters, practicing law and keeping a grocery store at the court. However, his business acumen did not match his dreams.

Soon after their marriage they moved to Wilmington, Massachusetts. Shortly returning to Boston they set up their home in the run-down section of the city. In spite of trying his best, Peter could not find any job and their financial condition became poorer day by day.

To dodge creditors and also to find new jobs Peter left her often enough. During this lean period, Wheatley began working as a charwoman, concurrently continuing to write poetries and trying to publish them.

Although nothing specific is known about Phillis Wheatley’s early childhood, scholars believe that she was born in and around 1753 in West Africa, possibly in present day Senegal or Gambia. We just know that she was kidnapped and sold to slave traders when she was a child.

The little girl, whose actual name was never known, was brought to the USA aboard the slave ship ‘Phillis’ owned by wealthy Boston merchant Timothy Fitch. It was a difficult trip, spanning 240 days. By the time it docked at Boston harbor on 11 July, 1761, twenty-one slaves had died.

At that time, her front teeth were missing, leading to the belief that she was around seven years old. A very frail girl unsuitable for hard labor, she was sold to John Whitney, a well-known Bostonian tailor looking for a domestic help for his wife Susannah, at a throwaway price.

Scholars believe that there could be two reasons why they chose this frail girl over stronger slaves. Firstly, the little girl was a status symbol, showcasing they had money to spare. But more likely, she reminded them of their departed daughter Sarah, who died exactly at the same age.

On bringing her home, they renamed her Phillis, after the slave ship that brought her to America. Although she was not entirely absolved of her domestic duty she was raised above her station and was given religious instructions. However, she was not baptized until August 1771.

While ‘On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin’ was her first published work, scholars believe that her first ever poem, written at the age of twelve, was ‘To the University of Cambridge in New England’. Published much later in 1773, the poem addresses the Harvard University students as ‘sons of science’.

From the poem, we can gather that by then, she had become a devout Christian. She thanked God for bringing her safely to the USA and reminded the students, how Jesus has shed blood for them, asking them to shun evil. Indeed, religion played an important part in her works.

Modeling her poems on famous poets of the day, particularly Alexander Pope, she continued to write, having her first published work in 1765. However, much as she admired Pope, she never tried to write satire, one of his major literary characteristics.

Although many white Bostonians adored her, she was very much aware that she was still a slave, not their equal and so wrote nothing that would offend them. In every day behavior too, she would keep a respectful distance, never sharing a table, even if she was invited.

To the King's Most Excellent Majesty’, written in 1768, is another of her major work of this period. In this poem, she praised King George III of England for repealing the Stamp Act. Later, as the American Revolution gained momentum, she started writing from the perspective of the colonist.

Although Phillis Wheatley had been a slave almost all her life, she never experienced the drudgery that was part of slave life. Instead, she had led a protected a life in the Wheatley household. But the situation changed soon after she became free.

With the death of her mistress in 1774, of Mr. Wheatley and her daughter, Mary, in 1778, her life became more and more tenuous. It became worse, when against the advice of her close friends she married a free black, John Peters. In spite of that, she continued to write.

In 1775, she sent a copy of a poem, ‘To His Excellency, George Washington’ to him. In the following year, he invited her to visit him at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She met him in March 1776 and in April the poem was republished in the Pennsylvania Gazette.

In 1779, Wheatley tried to publish a second collection of her poems. By then, all her benefactors except Nathaniel were dead. He too had married and moved to England. Wheatley had expected helps from her evangelical friends; but due to war situation and bad economic condition, nothing came of it.

Between 30 October and 18 December 1779, she ran six advertisements soliciting subscribers for a volume “Dedicated to the Right Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Esq.: One of the Ambassadors of the United States at the Court of France”. But this time too, the white Americans refused to respond.