Phyllis Wheatley
Phyllis Wheatley was born in Senegal, Africa in about 1753, there is no official record of her birth. Phyllis was around the age of seven when she was brought into America as a slave. Phyllis lived her childhood and most of her short adult life as a slave to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. One of the most amazing facts about Phyllis Wheatley is although she was a slave who was considered a child prodigy and because of this she was allowed an education that featured theology, philosophy, literature and history. Phyllis Wheatley’s occupation was slave, but her official occupation was poet. Phyllis Wheatley was a poet who spoke on faith and politics and who is hailed as the beginning of the black American literary …show more content…
Faith is the theme in Phyllis Wheatley’s poems for the reason that she relates her circumstances to the fact that she is has been allowed to believe in God who through her faith can provide a better life, therefore instead of Phyllis speaking of slavery and her life as a servant she is able to encourage others to believe that all is well, and can get better through faith in God. In “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” Wheatley is addressing students at the University of Cambridge as if she is a graduate of college or maybe even the president of the university. Phyllis Wheatley encourages the students that if they get and education and avoid sin they will surely have a wonderful life. (Wheatley, To the University of Cambridge in New England) Although Phyllis is a slave and is struck with an illness that was contracted because she was abducted and enslaved she is able to maintain her faith in God. The Enlightenment Era created a way for this slave woman’s voice to be heard poetry, and that she wrote for her masters, it can also be argued that as a result of Phyllis writing poetry slavery was noticed as being
Phyllis Wheatley was born in Senegal, Africa in about 1753, there is no official record of her birth. Phyllis was around the age of seven when she was brought into America as a slave. Phyllis lived her childhood and most of her short adult life as a slave to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. One of the most amazing facts about Phyllis Wheatley is although she was a slave who was considered a child prodigy and because of this she was allowed an education that featured theology, philosophy, literature and history. Phyllis Wheatley’s occupation was slave, but her official occupation was poet. Phyllis Wheatley was a poet who spoke on faith and politics and who is hailed as the beginning of the black American literary …show more content…
Faith is the theme in Phyllis Wheatley’s poems for the reason that she relates her circumstances to the fact that she is has been allowed to believe in God who through her faith can provide a better life, therefore instead of Phyllis speaking of slavery and her life as a servant she is able to encourage others to believe that all is well, and can get better through faith in God. In “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” Wheatley is addressing students at the University of Cambridge as if she is a graduate of college or maybe even the president of the university. Phyllis Wheatley encourages the students that if they get and education and avoid sin they will surely have a wonderful life. (Wheatley, To the University of Cambridge in New England) Although Phyllis is a slave and is struck with an illness that was contracted because she was abducted and enslaved she is able to maintain her faith in God. The Enlightenment Era created a way for this slave woman’s voice to be heard poetry, and that she wrote for her masters, it can also be argued that as a result of Phyllis writing poetry slavery was noticed as being