Slavery was brought to America along with colonization. One of its purposes was to maintain the slaves uneducated and submissive so that they wouldn’t revolt against their oppressors. Regardless, Phillis Wheatley was one of a handful of slaves who published a work of literature or art. Wheatley’s success, in spite of her situation and race, is a testament to her resilience and intellectual capacity. Her education is important to her story because, at her time, it put her in a unique position to argue for slaves in America. Wheatley was snatched from her home and family, taken into a different continent, and then sold into slavery. She was forced into a new culture and a new religion to which she adapted and grew in. Wheatley was taught to read and write by her owners which made her grow intellectually. She learned what was taught to her, however she developed her own way of thinking which put her in a powerful position. Wheatley became one of the few educated and literate slaves in history. This allowed the poetess an essential position to carry a message as a voice of African American slaves to her audience which was mostly composed of white Christians.
In her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Wheatley expresses her understanding of what she’s learned and nudges the reader towards the conclusion that all races are equal. Throughout the poem, she praises God and is thankful to have found a new religion. In the last verses of this poem, Wheatley writes “Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.” In these two verses she turns the Christian perspective she has learned and uses it to make the White Puritans understand that “Negros” are also children of God and can be redeemed and welcomed into Heaven just as they can.
In David Waldstreicher’s “The Wheatleyan Movement,” the author describes how Wheatley spent some time with the English abolitionist leader Granville Sharp with whom she shared ideas. From these interactions Wheatley adopted some of Sharp’s beliefs, mainly those regarding their religion. According to Waldstreicher, the pair agreed that “God punished those who failed to practice what they preached” (“The Wheatleyan Moment” 542). This belief is frequently expressed through most of her poetry. However, in this particular poem, she describes the other side of the coin. Wheatley now explains that not only can God punish, but he can also forgive. This forgiveness can be given to any of his followers or believers blind to the color of their skin, social, economic standing, or anything else that might separate one of his children from the others.
Regardless of her hard work, Wheatley was forced to go through thorough revisions and trials by prominent men in her society in order to prove her intellectual capacity. Even after passing these trials with flying colors and astonishing the men who questioned her, Wheatley’s published work held a letter by her owner, John Wheatley, in which he argues for her superseding capacity to learn and create despite being enslaved. John Wheatley writes in his letter, “as to her writing, her own curiosity led her to it; and this she learned in so short a time,” with this one sentence attesting to her hard work and knowledge.
John Shields, author of “Phillis Wheatley’s Use of Classicism,” wrote “the letter of attestation resulted from a public examination of the extent of Wheatley’s knowledge of the literatures of England, the colonies, and Rome” (98). Here, Shields continues to exalt Wheatley’s vast intellect, as it goes beyond what most people were expected to know. This “knowledge of the literatures of England, the colonies, and Rome” is broadly attested to throughout her works as represented by her use of mythology and religion to express herself and her ideas.
Nonetheless, it has been argued against Phillis Wheatley being an African American author, but rather that her focus went beyond race. Regardless, Wheatley was unarguably a slave and she expresses that in her poetry. She uses her poetry not only to reach out to prominent people, but the content of her poetry in and of itself is an expression of her reality as a slave. In her poem “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth,” Wheatley reaches out to the new Secretary of State for the Colonies, a known sympathizer of the colonies, William Legge. She uses her poetry as a weapon with which she portrays her experience and exposes the inhumanity behind slavery. Furthermore, the poetess uses her weapon to argue in favor of the abolition of slavery. In this poem, she speaks about the importance of freedom as only a person who has lacked it and survived through it can.
Wheatley writes “dread the iron chain, / Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand / Had made, and with it meant t’enslave the land” (“To the Right”). The quote expresses how the monarchy has tarnished the lands in America and turned it into an inhumane society. Wheatley, with her poem, explains to the Earl of Dartmouth his unique position to change that, to help the colonies, and to act humanely. In the last stanza of this poem, Wheatley thanks the Earl of Dartmouth for standing with the colonies in the past and continues to let him know that his work is not yet done. She reminds him that his work is under the eyes of God thus appealing to a fellow Christian. By helping the thousands of slaves owned in the colonies, Dartmouth would be doing the right thing.
Throughout this poem, Wheatley is concise and direct. The article “Wheatley, Phillis” exalts the poetess by stating that her work has become a “rebellious defiance, no longer guarded, is unmistakable; the tone matches that of the Declaration of Independence” (1116). By comparing her to this great work, symbolic of American pride, the author elevates Phillis Wheatley to a standard that of celebrated and distinguished American writers. The author recognizes the importance of her work, recognizes her work as it stands by that of the leading men of her time, and recognizes her fearlessness while doing it.
In the end, no one can dispute Phillis Wheatley intellect and resilience shown through her work. She was an African slave who was given an education by her owners and recognized this opportunity as a chance to make a difference. She spoke out against the oppressions that bounded her and was unafraid to call out the white men in power. Wheatley has been an inspiration and a face of revolution.