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Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects (1773)
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Abstract
Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784) was a Black poet who lived in Massachusetts for most of her life. She was born somewhere in West Africa—it is unclear where exactly—and sold into slavery as a young child. After arriving in America, she was purchased by a merchant in Boston and remained enslaved until 1773, when she was freed upon publishing Poems on Various Subjects, the book of poetry from which the excerpts in this chapter were taken. This chapter contains two of Wheatley’s poems: “On being brought from Africa to America” and “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth.” In these poems, her statements about slavery and race are quite guarded—as one might expect, given her circumstances. Yet she keeps returning to the topic of liberty and her abduction from Africa, often comparing the freedom of American colonies to her own unfreedom.
Title: Phillis Wheatley,
Poems on Various Subjects
(1773)
Description:
Abstract
Phillis Wheatley (c.
1753–1784) was a Black poet who lived in Massachusetts for most of her life.
She was born somewhere in West Africa—it is unclear where exactly—and sold into slavery as a young child.
After arriving in America, she was purchased by a merchant in Boston and remained enslaved until 1773, when she was freed upon publishing Poems on Various Subjects, the book of poetry from which the excerpts in this chapter were taken.
This chapter contains two of Wheatley’s poems: “On being brought from Africa to America” and “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth.
” In these poems, her statements about slavery and race are quite guarded—as one might expect, given her circumstances.
Yet she keeps returning to the topic of liberty and her abduction from Africa, often comparing the freedom of American colonies to her own unfreedom.
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