Phillis Wheatley was an African American woman born in West Africa in the year of 1753. Enslaved and brought to America at only age 8, Phillis Wheatley served as a house slave to the Wheatley family in Boston. After converting her to Christianity, the Wheatley family gave Phillis a formal education, and when Phillis demonstrated a talent for poetry the Wheatley family encouraged her artistically. Phillis Wheatley’s poems mainly dealt with her Christian faith and won her fame in both America and England, and even the praise of George Washington. However, despite being the first published female African-American poet, several modern scholars contest that Phillis does not deserve the fame she has gained, because her poetry either doesn’t discuss
…show more content…
The eulogy expresses themes of God as a mean of both escape and relief. The poem ends with Wheatley addressing Africans, in which she claims that God is an “impartial savior” and that they will become “sons, kings, and priests of God.” However, in a version of the poem published a year later, overseas, she changes the ending of the poem. In the modified ending, Wheatley says “He’ll make you free, and Kings, and priests of God.” Matson argues that this change shows Wheatley’s want to express her ideas on slavery, but not feeling safe enough to express it in America. To addresses the criticism that many have of Wheatley that this sort of coded language portraying death as a means of escape is a common trope of the era, and not necessarily a reflection of Wheatley’s opinion, Matson states that these claims could be dismissed if “they came from the pen of a white poet, but since they came from the soft-spoken Negro… the lines take on an added significance.” (Matson, …show more content…
However, Matson overstates this fact. At the core, Wheatley does not see herself primarily as an African, a slave, or a woman; she sees herself as a Christian. The majority of her writing has to do with religion. Whenever Wheatley mentions being African or a slave, it is in regards to how it relates to her Christianity. This piece of Wheatley is best demonstrated in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” in which she rejoices being brought to America and Christianized. She ends the poem stating that “Negros black as Cain, may be refin’d and join th’ angelic train”. This shows that in Wheatley’s belief, being taken from her homeland and being made a slave, is a price worth paying to be a Christian, and that she does not see her race as the most important part of her. Wheatley would rather be a Christian slave, than a free
The eulogy expresses themes of God as a mean of both escape and relief. The poem ends with Wheatley addressing Africans, in which she claims that God is an “impartial savior” and that they will become “sons, kings, and priests of God.” However, in a version of the poem published a year later, overseas, she changes the ending of the poem. In the modified ending, Wheatley says “He’ll make you free, and Kings, and priests of God.” Matson argues that this change shows Wheatley’s want to express her ideas on slavery, but not feeling safe enough to express it in America. To addresses the criticism that many have of Wheatley that this sort of coded language portraying death as a means of escape is a common trope of the era, and not necessarily a reflection of Wheatley’s opinion, Matson states that these claims could be dismissed if “they came from the pen of a white poet, but since they came from the soft-spoken Negro… the lines take on an added significance.” (Matson, …show more content…
However, Matson overstates this fact. At the core, Wheatley does not see herself primarily as an African, a slave, or a woman; she sees herself as a Christian. The majority of her writing has to do with religion. Whenever Wheatley mentions being African or a slave, it is in regards to how it relates to her Christianity. This piece of Wheatley is best demonstrated in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” in which she rejoices being brought to America and Christianized. She ends the poem stating that “Negros black as Cain, may be refin’d and join th’ angelic train”. This shows that in Wheatley’s belief, being taken from her homeland and being made a slave, is a price worth paying to be a Christian, and that she does not see her race as the most important part of her. Wheatley would rather be a Christian slave, than a free