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Phillis Wheatley: Strength in Subtlety
Upon leaving the Boston Commonwealth mall in Massachusetts, shoppers are greeted
with a view of a copper statue. This statue depicts a young woman sitting in a pensive nature,
with a hand under her chin and a quill in her hand. The inscription below the statue denotes her
as “Phillis Wheatley”. The statue of Phillis Wheatley is not assuming; indeed, she is portrayed as
sitting rather than in an upright position. Also, the position of her head on her hand is passive,
and can almost be construed as meek. Wheatley, as a writer, has been said to possess the same
unassuming nature as her statue, especially in relation to her social location. She was born in
Gambia, Africa, and brought to America is a slave when she was eight. Under the care of her
owners, Susanna and John Wheatley, and their daughter, Mary, Wheatley quickly learned about
Christianity and how to write and read, even delving into classics such as Homer’s The Iliad and
Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is from these contexts, of the classics and of religion, from which
Wheatley namely drew inspiration for her poems. She concentrated on these categories so often,
in fact, that many readers have criticized her as not being aware of her social location because of
her failure to mention slavery and to take an abolitionist stance. Some say that she wrote to
appease a white audience, and in this way forsook her true heritage. Wheatley, however, did not
need to be radical by today’s standards to assert an anti-slavery message. Under the lens of her
historical context, and through the use of religious implications, classical references, and
language, Wheatley recognized her African American heritage and subtly portrayed an
abolitionist message that would inspire other African American writers and set a framework for
the anti-slavery movement.
Phillis Wheatley’s most notable characteristic is that she was a slave brought from Africa
at the age of eight (Rawley, 3). She was uneducated, and also did not identify herself as
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Christian. Indeed, Wheatley herself described her homeland as “Pagan” and non-refined
(Wheatley, 61). Wheatley’s early background as lacking in education and Christianity can be
seen as especially significant when juxtaposed with the young woman that she would later
become. She received a high level of classical education from the Wheatleys that would rival the
knowledge held by her white readers (Levernier). Possibly even more notably, Wheatley became
a Christian despite the difficult journey of her childhood and the subjugated position she was
forced into as a slave in America. It is these aspects of her social location that both define her
experiences and raise questions about what influenced her and how this translated into her
writing. According to expectations, she should never have become neither educated nor
Christian. This makes her social location even more interesting and worth looking at in relation
to her poetry and the messages she portrayed.
Upon arriving in America and becoming a slave to the Wheatley family, Phillis Wheatley
was subjected to the sermons of Reverend George Whitefield. Whitefield was well-known for his
tolerance and acceptance of those who were on the fringe of society, and because of this
Wheatley was greatly affected by him (Rawley, 4). She came to possess Christian views, and she
would ultimately use her beliefs in God as a way to condemn advocates of slavery. In her poem,
“On Being Brought From Africa to America”, Wheatley gives the advice to, “Remember,
Christians, Negros, black as Cain,/ May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train.”(Wheatley, 61).
One possible interpretation is that Wheatley is asking Christians to remember to be tolerant and
remember that “Negros”, too, are able to be saved and possess Christian characteristics. This is
an example of a method in which Wheatley uses Christianity as a modifier to bring all of
humankind into one group. By telling Christians to remember that those that are “black as Cain”
are still Christians, she is asserting that to be Christian means to traverse all other social
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constructions such as gender or race (Harris, 12). Thus, she is providing grounds from which to
argue that white social constructions of race have no power in the eyes of religion. “On Being
Brought From Africa to America” also employs what scholar AdÉÈ kỌ́ calls a “critical
panegyric” (18). A critical panegyric is the idea that, by debasing oneself and upholding the
virtuosity of another, a critique of those who are not acting virtuous is implied indirectly. In her
poem, Wheatley denounces herself as coming from a “Pagan” land while upholding the virtues
of Christianity as being redemptive (61). When juxtaposed with the later call for Christians to
remember that blacks, too, can be saved, a critical panegyric becomes apparent. By subtly
denouncing those Christians that view the African American race, “with a scornful eye”, she is
providing a critique of the white Christian culture which supposedly accepts all believers as
equal and able to be saved, but that also sees blacks as unequal by allowing the social norm of
slavery.
Aside from her religious intonations, another defining characteristic of Phillis Wheatley
is her intelligence and extensive knowledge of the classics. The Wheatleys noticed her voracity
in learning, and gave her the tools necessary to engage herself intellectually, including works of
classical literature (Shields, 2). This early immersion in the poetic devices of classicists such as
Homer and Ovid influenced some of her poetry, and her inclusion of classical allusions provide
context from which to see an awareness of her racial identity. For example, a literary device that
echoes that used by Homer and Ovid is the invocation of the “muse” for inspiration. Notably, in
“To Maecenas”, Wheatley begins the poem by addressing Maecenas for inspiration as a muse
(Wheatley). Maecenas was not a god, but was a white, Roman male (Flanzbaum, 5). The fact
that he was Roman may indicate the importance that she places on the Roman classics, but, most
notably, the fact that he is a white male has racial connotations. A white poet’s mere wondering
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if a muse will give him or her inspiration can be contrasted with the idea that, as a slave,
Wheatley sees the muse as someone she necessarily needs permission from in order to write
(Flanzbaum, 6). Thus, here, Wheatley is showing cognizance of her given social station as a
person who cannot merely await a muse’s inspiration, but as someone who needs it in order to
write and for her work to be accepted. Moreover, the fact that her muse is white relates to the
culture of inequality that pervaded white and black relations. Another way in which Wheatley
shows her knowledge of her social location is by providing her own inclusion of certain aspects
in interpretations of classic poems. For example, in “Niobe in Distress”, Wheatley partially
narrates the story of Niobe from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but makes come crucial changes that
add to the overall feel of the poem. Most notably, at the conclusion, Wheatley inserts her own
lines before paraphrasing from Ovid’s poem, “Ah! spare me one, the vocal hills reply’d:/In vain
she begs, the Fates her suit deny/ In her embrace she sees her daughter die.” This can be
evaluated as an emphasis on human suffering (Shields, 15). Because the hills echo back to her a
desire which will be unfulfilled, Wheatley intensifies the feeling of despair and desperation that
Niobe is feeling. Wheatley’s accent on Niobe’s distress may be meant as a nod to the
hopelessness felt by African American slaves who had no real hope for equality. Also, the fact
that Niobe had her children taken, which were her pride in the story, could be a metaphor for the
demoralization and loss of pride that Africans felt upon being brought to America as slaves.
One of the main criticisms of Wheatley’s poetry is that she does not take steps to
recognize her race and position as a slave in her writings, and thus fails to provide a foundation
from which others in her same situation could work from (Smith, 8). While it may be true that
she was not radical, the tone of the era in which she lived must be considered. Writing in the late
1760’s in America, Wheatley lived in a colonial time where abolition was not even considered,
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and slavery was even seen by some as supported in the Bible (Levernier). Also during this time,
slaves were partially seen as a reflection of their owners. Wheatley had a particularly close
relationship with hers, and publishing radically anti-slavery sentiments may have hurt the
Wheatleys’ standing (Rawley, 4). This supports the assumption that slaves, in general, were not
expected to speak out. Indeed, Wheatley’s poems were not published at first in America because
of her standing as a black girl, and instead were originally released in England. Even then, some
saw her as a radical writer solely because of the fact that she was a “slave girl” (Levernier). This
shows that some people did find her radical during the time in which she was first published.
Her departure from others as a more radical anti-slavery writer becomes even more
apparent when looked at in relationship to other African American writers that came either
directly before Wheatley or during the time of her writing. Jacobus Capitein, who wrote before
Wheatley, explored the idea of slavery being wrong according to religion and even by looking at
critiques of Aristotle (Harris, 4). However, he does not locate himself as distinctly black, and
does not look at his own struggle against slavery (4). James Gronniosaw, another writer, also did
not seem to completely locate himself as black (5). Briton Hammon, too, wrote at around the
same time as Wheatley and mentioned himself as black in his poems, but did not mention his
race as a whole by failing to identify any other blacks in his poetry (8). Indeed, a common trait of
these writers is that none of them really seem to wholly identify themselves as African
American, or refer to their position of slavery. Wheatley, on the other hand, provides a much
more concrete recognition of her social location and of the black identification as completely
separate from that of whites.
Aside from being critiqued as non-recognizant of her African American identity,
Wheatley’s work has also been criticized as too conformational to white Western culture by its
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adherence to Christian religion and its inclusion of classical references that reflect the higher
learning generally associated with white education (Scheick, 2). In her writing, however,
Wheatley uses her knowledge of religion and the classics to create an air of ambiguity.
According to some, on the first read her poems seem to be base and to make only mild allusions
that do not stick out as notable (Levernier). On closer inspection, however, the references she
makes have very specific messages. For example, in “On Being Brought from Africa to
America”, she states that, “’Their color is a diabolic die”(Wheatley, 61). The word “die” can
have multiple meanings, including gambling, color stain, and a connotation to death. Because
these messages may not have been apparent to her everyday readers, who doubted that a black
slave girl could write anything that could be read closely for meaning, she used her intellect as a
means to put herself above her patrons (Levernier). By including these allusions that must be
closely analyzed, she is ironically mocking the fact that the same people, such as the white
patrons, that doubt her work for only providing a shallow level of meaning will also be the ones
to miss the deeper meanings. Thus, she establishes her knowledge and use of religious and
classical references as superior to that of her readers in order to express a higher social station.
She uses this to prove that, although below whites on a social scale, African Americans possess
the ability to create deep meaning in their writings.
Phillis Wheatley, far from acting as a passive writer creating poems solely for the
enjoyment of her white patrons and to espouse her own literary knowledge, also wrote to provide
some social consciousness of her position as a slave and to provide a sense of anti-slavery
rhetoric. Although the validity of this rhetoric is largely contested, Wheatley’s identification of
herself with her “blackness” and as a slave marked a historic turn towards a more free form of
speech about the social location of African American slaves. Because she spoke out, however
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subtly at first, she began the framework from which subsequent African American authors could
build. She is praised as firming the black consciousness, providing a more concrete form for the
slave narrative, and using religion as a moral means from which to argue against slavery (Harris,
10, 12,14). African American writers who followed her would be influenced by these
conventions, and would use her origin recognition as their own muse to continue to explore
literature written to express the human dimension of slavery. Phillis Wheatley, as a young slave
girl with no special societal standing, set the spark that ignited literary black consciousness and
awareness of anti-slavery issues, which ultimately set fire to the cause of abolitionist writings
and the cries for freedom and equality that would empower generations to come.
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Harris, Will. "Phillis Wheatley, Diaspora Subjectivity, and the African American Canon." MELUS 33.3 (2008): 27-43.
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Wheatley, Phillis. “Niobe in Distress”. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/niobe-in-distress/. Web. 28 Sept. 2010.
Wheatley, Phillis. ""On Being Brought From Africa to America"" The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. New
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