Table of Contents
Why is Phillis Wheatley so important?
After being kidnapped from West Africa and enslaved in Boston, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American and one of the first women to publish a book of poetry in the colonies in 1773.
What is the main idea of Phillis Wheatley?
In addition to making an important contribution to American literature, Wheatley’s literary and artistic talents helped show that African Americans were equally capable, creative, intelligent human beings who benefited from an education. In part, this helped the cause of the abolition movement.
Does anything in the poetry of Phillis Wheatley indicate that she was a woman?
Also in this volume, an engraving of Wheatley is included as a frontispiece. This emphasizes that she is a Black woman, and by her clothing, her servitude, and her refinement and comfort. But it also shows her as an enslaved person and as as a woman at her desk, emphasizing that she can read and write.
Who is Wheatley quizlet?
Phillis Wheatley was not only a woman but an African slave. Such circumstances were so uncommon, in fact, that when her first book of poetry was published both in Europe and America in 1773, she was brought before a council of eighteen magistrates in Boston to prove that the writings were her own.
What is the theme of Wheatley’s poem?
What is the theme of Wheatley’s poem? Subjects should admire and praise their ruler.
Why do we love the story of Phillis Wheatley?
Why we love her: At age seven, Wheatley was sold into slavery and given the name Phillis from the ship that carried her across the Atlantic. When she arrived in Boston, she began working for the Wheatley family. It was here that she learned to read and write, and when they discovered her poetic talent, they encouraged her to write and publish.
Where did the name Phillis Wheatley come from?
Born in Africa about 1753 and sold as a slave in Boston in 1761, Phillis was a small, sick child who caught the attention of John and Susanna Wheatley. Purchased as a domestic servant for Susanna, the small girl was named after the ship that brought her to Boston, the Phillis, and her master, Wheatley.
How old was Phillis Wheatley when she started writing?
She relieved the child of most domestic duties and educated her, with assistance from her own daughter, Mary, in reading, writing, religion, language, literature, and history. Phillis began publishing her poems around the age of twelve, and soon afterward her fame spread across the Atlantic.
How did Phillis Wheatley meet the Countess of Huntingdon?
It was also here that she met Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, a friend of Susanna Wheatley’s; the countess eventually funded the publication of Phillis’s book. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in London in late 1773, just as Phillis traveled back to Boston to tend to a gravely ill Susanna.