Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka, Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film and in the Women's Studies Program at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, presented "A Conversation with Phillis Wheatley" during the Brown Foundation's National Symposium entitled "American History Unmasked: Remembering Plessy vs. Ferguson" May 16-18, 1996. The following selection reproduces her article which was published in the Kansas Humanities Council's History Alive! Study Guide (1995) pp. 3-5.

Phillis Wheatley defied all expectations of her class, race, and gender to become an internationally celebrated poet. She wrote herself from the obscurity of slavery into the annals of the American literary scene. Even though she later died in near obscurity, the words she wove in her lifetime immortalize her memory. Today, her works continue to generate interest from scholars and to inspire the student of life's struggles and achievements.

When Phillis Wheatley landed in America on July 11, 1761, a frail West African girl barely 8 years old, she could not guess the extraordinary life that awaited her. As she stood on the auction block in Boston, she must have been terrified and no doubt confused by the strange faces and the strange language spoken around her. Brutally snatched from her homeland, she was now homeless, without a country, without a family, without identity. Based on the horrors she had experienced on the slave ship during the "middle passage," she could scarcely have imagined anything better awaiting her--that is provided she had strength left to do any imagining.

However, it seemed that the heavens decided she had had enough suffering. She was purchased by the Wheatley family who, conscious of her tender age and sympathetic to her poor health, treated her with kindness. She served as the personal attendant of Mrs. Susanna Wheatley and was given household duties. She was named after the ship that brought her from Africa, taking the last name of her owners as was the custom in those slave-owning days. Mary, the daughter of the family, befriended her and tutored her in Latin, religion, English language, and literature. Apparently brilliant and with an aptitude for learning, Phillis soon acquired an education that any free young woman from a well-off family of that time would envy. She became an avid student of the Bible and especially admired the works of Alexander Pope (1688-1744), the British neoclassical writer. Through Pope's translation of Homer, she also developed a taste for Greek mythology. Thus was launched a remarkable career as a poet and a life of deep religious piety for young Phillis.

On December 21, 1767, the fourteen year old Wheatley published her first poem in the Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury. This achievement came just six years after her arrival in America, without any prior knowledge of the English language. The poem that really launched Wheatley to prominence was an elegy, "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770." The elegy became Phillis' poetic trademark. Twenty of the 46 poems published in her lifetime are about death.

Whitefield was a well known minister and evangelist in America and Britain. He was also chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon in England. Wheatley boldly sent a copy of the poem to the Countess along with a letter of condolence, even though she had never met her. The Countess helped get the first edition of Wheatley's book of poems published in England in 1773, after publishers in America had rejected her work. Entitled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the book is dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon.

There is no doubt that Wheatley's poetry commanded a respectable place among the eighteenth-century poets of America. An anonymous critic wrote that her poems "are quite equal to a great number of the verses that appear under the names of Halifax, Dorset, and others of 'the mob of gentlemen who write with ease.'" Critics then and now recognize that although she may not be a great poet, she represents an important development in American history, politics, and the world of letters. Certainly, she commands a significant chapter in African American literary analysis. Her 1773 work was the first book of poetry and probably the first book to be published by an African American.

As a young slave woman in eighteenth-century America, Phillis was a phenomenon that could not be ignored. She generated as much controversy and acclaim for who she was as for what she achieved. Editors frequently prefaced her poems with information about her race and status. The Boston Censor (Feb. 29, 1772) advertised a proposal for printing a collection of her poems in part as ". . . a Negro Girl, from the Strength of her own Genius, it being but a few years since she came to this Town an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa." The negative reference to Africa indicates some of the prejudices Wheatley had to overcome.

Indeed, Phillis achieved success through her intelligence, hard work, and perseverance. Her genius notwithstanding, Phillis would be the first to give all glory to God and claim none for herself. There is no doubt that religion exerted a strong influence on her life. Her Christian piety and humility probably earned her the respect and endearment of the distinguished people she met. They readily bestowed upon her their good will and patronage. Despite her humility, Wheatley was far from timid. She took several bold initiatives in contacting famous people who could help her publish her poems. She talked knowledgeably about the merits of education to college students and thought nothing of penning poems of letters to British aristocrats, American politicians and generals.

In spite of her privileged position, there is no evidence that Wheatley felt superior to other slaves. She apparently maintained a cordial relationship with the black community in Boston. She dedicated a poem "To S.M., A young African Painter, On Seeing His Works." In turn, she received a poetic tribute from another slave poet, Jupiter Hammond. Her only known friend was a fellow black domestic, Obour Tanner, who also acted as her literary agent from the late 1770s on.

On May 8, 1773, Wheatley sailed to England. Fresh sea air had been prescribed for her chronic respiratory problems, but she also used the opportunity to pursue the publication of her poems. She was accompanied by Nathaniel Wheatley, the twin brother of Mary, who went to England to look after the family business.

The trip was a success. Phillis met with several distinguished people, including Lord Lincoln, Lady Cavendish, and Mrs. Palmer, a poet. Among the gifts she received was the sum of five guineas from Lord Dartmouth for the purchase of the complete works of Pope. Unfortunately, she did not have time to meet with the Countess of Huntingdon nor King George III, both of whom had extended invitations to her. Her mistress, Susanna Wheatley, was gravely ill, and Phillis rushed home to be by her side. She arrived in Boston in September 1773. By October, Phillis was a free woman. Her master had released her from bondage.

When the War of Independence broke out in 1776, Phillis Wheatley fully identified with the struggle of the American colonies. During the British occupation of Boston, she joined John Wheatley, her former master, as a refugee at Mary's Rhode Island home. It was from here she wrote a letter and a poem to George Washington in October 1775, regarding the impending war. She received a reply and an invitation to visit. Wheatley did visit General Washington prior to Boston's evacuation by the British, and her poem was later published in the Virginia Gazette.

On April 1, 1778, Phillis married John Peters, a free black man. They had three children, but apparently none survived Phillis.

The was proved a trying time for everybody but especially for Wheatley, who had no skills other than her writing. No longer financially dependent on the Wheatley family, and deprived of the English patronage she had enjoyed before the hostilities, Wheatley was relentless in seeking publication of and subscription to her works in America. She was not discouraged when she was unsuccessful.

Amidst her own personal troubles--a financially strapped marriage, the death of her children, and increasingly failing health--Phillis struggled to write poems in memory of her friends. Her work from this period includes an elegy to Dr. Samuel Cooper, who had baptized her in 1771, and a poem to a couple, "On the Death of their Infant Son." Till the end, she remained loyal to her benefactors and continued to show concern for those in situations less fortunate than hers.

Wheatley's poems say little about her origins in Africa or her status as a slave. The neoclassic style in which she was tutored, and after which she closely modeled her style is very impersonal. And it should be remembered that Phillis left Africa too young to retain clear memories--or perhaps the violence of the slave ship caused amnesia. Later in America, there were no cultural contacts to help revive her memory. However, Wheatley did not deny her roots. There are several references to Africa in a number of her works and she claimed heritage with Terence, the African writer of ancient Rome.

In the 1960s, black activists both in America and Africa faulted her for not vigorously espousing the cause of freedom for slaves. However, this criticism fails to take into account the time period in which she lived. Phillis was astute and diplomatic enough to realize the delicacy of her position. In the 1700s, people like the Wheatleys and Reverend Whitefield were very sympathetic to the plight of slaves, yet saw nothing wrong in owning them. Any protest on Phillis' part might have alienated her benefactors.

Nonetheless,Wheatley loved freedom and condemned slavery indirectly in her poetry by writing about freedom and tyranny in more general terms. Such poems include "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty" (1768), "America" (1768), and the poem and letter to General Washington (1775). In her letters and private communication Wheatley was more specific in her criticism of slavery. She revealed more of her "inner self," particularly in her communications with her friend and literary agent, Tanner.

For Wheatley, religion was the real key to freedom. The Bible became her favorite book and the Christian religion her succor and fortress. Her faith, it appears, gave her the ultimate sense of freedom even while still in bondage. She was truly "set free in Jesus Christ." It is through this Christian lens that she rationalized her capture and sale into slavery. In the poem "On Being Brought From Africa to America," Wheatley wrote:

"TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too."

Her belief in Christianity as the ultimate triumph probably explains why she wrote so many elegies. To her, death was not defeat, but the Christian's triumph over world problems and the key to eternal freedom.

Phillis Wheatley passed into eternity of December 5, 1784. She was about 31 years old. Befittingly, she received an elegy from a fellow poet, who wrote under the pen name of "Horatio." The poem, "Elegy on the Death of a Late Celebrated Poetess" appeared in Boston Magazine and said in part:

"As if by heaven inspir'd, did she relate,
The souls grand entrance at the sacred gate!. . .
But O! how vain the wish that friendship pays,
Since her own volumes are her greatest praise."