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Honoring Phyllis Wheatley
by Anna Shirey
"The World is a severe schoolmaster, for its frowns are less dangerous than its smiles and flatteries, and it is a difficult task to keep in the path of wisdom."
-Phillis Wheatley
In honor of Black History Month I wanted to write about an author that would capture the essence of this celebration of contributions made by African Americans. There is a long list of African American writers, but Phillis Wheatley’s name is on top because she was the first. I have chosen to tell her story because I have a high regard for those that were brave enough and strong enough to be first. Firsts have, throughout history, struggled to push open doors that posterity might enter more freely. Wheatley was a door pusher.
 Phillis Wheatley was a poet. Yet, poetry was not the greatest part of her legacy. Wheatley changed the face of American literature and opened the door to the literary world for blacks and women. You see, Wheatley was a black female slave in the late 1770s. In fact, she holds the distinction of being the third woman living in the United States to have published a book. Perhaps even more notable is the fact that she was the first African American to be published. This historic book written by Phillis Wheatley is “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”.
Wheatley, born in the Senegal area of Africa, was captured and sold into slavery at about the age of seven or eight. Upon her arrival she was purchased by John Wheatley of Boston for his wife Susannah. Susannah wanted a domestic servant that would faithfully attend her in old age. Wheatley was never used as a domestic, but was brought into the family and given a classic education along with the other Wheatley children. Wheatley adopted the Christian religion of her master with devotion.
 When Phillis Wheatley began to write, her talent as a poet was so great that she had her first poem published in the Newport Mercury by the age of 13. She created a stir with her writing, particularly the elegy she wrote upon the death of George Whitefield, which drew the attention of notable men such as John Hancock, Thomas Hutchinson, and George Washington. The former two men, among others, wrote and signed an affirmation of Phillis Wheatley’s identity which was published in the preface of her book “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”. Such a declaration of the legitimacy of the author was needed due to the unbelievable idea of a black female writing a book at that time. Wheatley’s book was published in London due to the refusal of the publishers in Boston.
After this literary success Phillis Wheatley suffered a series of hardships which ultimately would end in tragedy. It is unclear if Wheatley was freed by formal manumission, but upon the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Wheately, Phillis was by all accounts free. She found herself destitute and took work as a domestic servant. Little is known about John Peters, the man she married at age 25. It is reported that Peters frequently abandoned Wheatley and their children leaving the full burden of survival upon her. The burden was too great: Phillis Wheately died in 1784 of malnutrition and poverty.
It has been recorded that Wheatley had attempted to publish a second book during this harrowing time, but the world that had once welcomed her now ignored her. Her final manuscript has not been found.
Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet, will be remembered for the quality of her work as well as the door that she cracked open both for women and African Americans.
"Throughout the struggle for emancipation of slaves – when most whites believed that dark-skinned people were genetically inferior – Phillis Wheatley’s words spoke from the grave to offer contrary evidence."
- Doris Weatherford
Anna Shirey is the Dusty Shelf publisher.
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