and its relation to American history, as well as to
popular perceptions of the poet herself.
Though lauded in her own day for overcom-
ing the then unimaginable boundaries of race,
slavery, and gender, by the twentieth century
Wheatley was vilified, primarily for her poem
‘‘On Being Brought from Africa to America.’’
Both black and white critics have wrestled with
placing her properly in either American studies
or African American studies. If allowances have
finally been made for her difficult position as a
slave in Revolutionary Boston, black readers
and critics still have not forgiven her the literary
sin of writing to white patrons in neoclassical
couplets.
Providing a comprehensive and inspiring
perspective inThe Trials of Phillis Wheatley:
America’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters
with the Founding Fathers, Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., remarks on the irony that ‘‘Wheatley, having
been pain-stakingly authenticated in her own
time, now stands as a symbol of falsity, artificial-
ity, of spiritless and rote convention.’’ Gates
documents the history of the critique of her
poetry, noting that African Americans in the
nineteenth century, following the trends of Fred-
erick Douglass and the numerous slave narra-
tives, created a different trajectory for black
literature, separate from the white tradition
that Wheatley emulated; even before the twenti-
eth century, then, she was being scorned by other
black writers for not mirroring black experience
in her poems. In effect, she was attempting a
degree of integration into Western culture not
open to, and perhaps not even desired by, many
African Americans.
Of course, Wheatley’s poetry does docu-
ment a black experience in America, namely,
Wheatley’s alone, in her unique and complex
position as slave, Christian, American, African,
and woman of letters. ‘‘On Being Brought from
Africa to America’’ is a statement of pride andWHAT
DO I READ
NEXT? The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olau-
dah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African,
by Olaudah Equiano, was first published in
1789, causing a sensation in British antislav-
ery circles. His patroness was the Countess
of Huntingdon, Wheatley’s patron. This
first slave narrative by an African writer
furthered the abolitionist cause.
The Black Presence in the Era of the Ameri-
can Revolution(1989), by Sidney Kaplan
and Emma N. Kaplan, gives details of the
lives of black soldiers, women, preachers,
writers, artists, and legal petitioners for free-
dom in the Revolutionary period. It includes
an account of Wheatley, putting her in con-
text with other significant black contribu-
tors to the Revolution.
Mary Beth Norton presents documents
from before and after the war inLiberty’s
Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of
American Women, 1750–1800(1996). She
includes the experiences of different classes
and races.
The Collected Writings of Samson Occom,
Mohegan: Literature and Leadership in
Eighteenth-Century Native America(2006)
contains Samson Occom’s personal narra-
tive and his letters, lending another view of
the Revolutionary period. Like Wheatley,
he went to England for support, finding
Christianity to be a great equalizer, and
Wheatley wrote one of her most famous
letters to him about freedom. Also like
Wheatley, he published his writings in news-
papers during his life.NEVERTHELESS, WHEATLEY WAS A LEGITIMATE
WOMAN OF LEARNING AND LETTERS WHO CONSCIOUSLY
PARTICIPATED IN THE PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF THE DAY,
IN A VOICE REPRESENTING THE LIVING TRUTH OF WHAT
AMERICA CLAIMED IT STOOD FOR—WHETHER OR NOT
THE SLAVE-OWNING CITIZENS WERE PREPARED TO
ACCEPT IT.’’On Being Brought from Africa to America