Remembering Phillis Wheatley
This young lady was called Phillis because that was the name of the ship that brought her, and Wheatley, the name of the merchant who bought her. She was born in Senegal 🇸🇳.
In Boston, the slave traders put her up for sale: “She's 7 years old! She will be a good mare!”
She was felt naked by many hands.
At thirteen, she was already writing poems in a language that was not her own. No one believed that she was the author. At twenty, Phillis was questioned by a court of eighteen so-called enlightened White men in robes and wigs.
She had to recite passages from Virgil and Milton and verses from the Bible, and vow that the poems she composed were not copied.
From a chair, she underwent her lengthy examination until the court approved her: she was a woman, she was Black, she was enslaved, but she was a poet.
Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American writer to publish a book in the United States 🇺🇸
In Boston, the slave traders put her up for sale: “She's 7 years old! She will be a good mare!”
She was felt naked by many hands.
At thirteen, she was already writing poems in a language that was not her own. No one believed that she was the author. At twenty, Phillis was questioned by a court of eighteen so-called enlightened White men in robes and wigs.
She had to recite passages from Virgil and Milton and verses from the Bible, and vow that the poems she composed were not copied.
From a chair, she underwent her lengthy examination until the court approved her: she was a woman, she was Black, she was enslaved, but she was a poet.
Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American writer to publish a book in the United States 🇺🇸