Characteristics Of Inspirational Women In The 19th Century

Phillis Wheatley is a gem of her time; the first African-American woman to have her poetry published. Though purchased as a slave, her life was far from most African-Americans during the 17th century. She was educated and became deeply rooted in her faith: Christianity. From an outsider, her life may be viewed as an adopted child rather than a slave to the Wheatley family. However, she did not forget where she came from or those less fortunate than herself. Wheatley used the education she was afforded and her new-found spirituality to fight against slavery through the use of words (751). One of the greatest examples of this is her poem “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” addressed to perhaps the well-educated group of

Phillis Wheatley, once coined the mother of black literature, now, deemed an “imitation” is the sole focus of Henry Louis Jr’s, The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, in regards to the many perspectives and intrepations pertaining to her poetic works. In closing of the novel, in which he evaluates the various opinions offered, Gates suggests that readers should “...learn to read Wheatley anew, unblinkered by the anxieties of her time and ours. That’s the only way to let Phillis Wheatley take the stand. The challenge isn’t to read white or read black; it is to read”(Gates 89). Such is the stance he assumes and carries throughout his novel.

Born in Senegal around 1753, Phillis Wheatley became an important American poetic figure. At the age of 8, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston on a slave ship and upon her arrival to Boston, she was quickly sold to John Wheatley (Bio). Under her new family, Phillis adopted the master’s last name, taken under the wife’s wing, and showed her deep intelligence. Even though suffering from poor health, Phillis’s intelligence did not go unnoticed; she received lessons in theology, English, Latin and Greek. Being a slave did not stop Phillis from learning and experiencing her life, she participated in the master’s family events and eventually became a family member. The irony in this situation is

Within sixteen months of her arrival, she was reading astronomy, geography, history, and British literature. Wheatley was able to break a language barrier that had held so many others of her race back. Her desire for learning increased and the quest for knowledge became embedded in her spirit, mind, and soul. By her teenage years, Wheatley was a well known author, reciting poems for the New England elite in homes where blacks could not even sit at the table with whites.Phillis Wheatley made many contributions to American literature. Other than successfully representing and expressing the feelings of anger, frustration, and impatience of African American people abroad, she has paved the way for young aspiring African American writers.

Phillis Wheatley overcame extreme obstacles, such as racism and sexism, to become one of the most acclaimed poets in the 18th Century. Her works are characterized by religious and moral backgrounds, which are due to the extensive education of religion she received. In this sense, her poems also fit into American Poetry. However, she differs in the way that she is a black woman whose writings tackle greater subjects while incorporating her moral standpoint. By developing her writing, she began speaking out against injustices that she faced and, consequently, gave way to authors such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Countee Cullen.

In this presentation, Dr. Vincent Carretta explains the life of Phillis Wheatley who is the first English-speaking person of African descent to publish a book in America (and only the second woman of any race to publish a book). In July of 1761 and at the age of around seven years, Phillis Wheatley arrived in Boston as an enslaved African girl where she had been purchased by Susana and John Wheatley. Approximately six years later (1767), Phillis Wheatley published her first poem in a Rhode Island newspaper. Three years later, in 1770, Phillis Wheatley wrote an elegy on the death of a great Methodist evangelist (George Whitfield). This elegy is what gained international fame for Phillis Wheatley. In 1772 Phillis Wheatley and her masters attempted to publish a volume of her work but were unsuccessful due to the fact that subscribers did not believe that Phillis Wheatley would have the education to have written such works of art and so the publishers rejected the idea.

In a time when Africans were stolen from their native lands and brought through the middle passage to a land that claimed was a free country, a small African girl, who would later be known as Phillis Wheatley, was sold in Boston in 1761. In the speech, “The Miracle of Black Poetry in America”, written by June Jordan, a well respected black poet, professor and activist, wrote the speech in 1986, 200 years after Phillis walked the earth, to honor the legacy of the first black female poet for the people of the United States. Jordan, passionately alludes to the example of Phillis Wheatley’s life, to show the strength and perseverance of African-American people throughout difficult history and how they have overcome the impossible.

Anne Bradstreet, Daughter of the one governor and first published poet in America, was classified as a classic religious poet and also was also considered a very modern poet who really focused on her everyday life and all of her daily activates. Phillis Wheatley, enslaved at the age of 6, and became the first black women poet in America wote mostly classical poetry and had many Christian views. Her poetry used pyscholical meaning and also used poetic devices. Although both poets were to very respected poets of there time both are also very different compared to their work. Phillis Wheatley’s poetry was more in depth, thoughtful, and had somewhat more stylish than the work of Anne’s Bradstreet’s.

Phyllis Wheatley was born in Africa, but was brought to the Americas to be sold into slavery. John Wheatley who only intended her to be an attendant for his wife bought her. Although she was a slave, Phyllis Wheatley was accepted into the family as if she was their own child. She was given the opportunity to learn how to read and write, which was forbidden for most slaves. Soon after, Phyllis was able to understand the Bible, British literary tradition, and the basics of Latin and Greek. She began to write poetry and with the help of John Wheatley, her poems were published. They depicted her worldviews as well as passion for her culture. For anyone that didn’t know anything about Phyllis Wheatley was able to learn that she believed in equality for all and was prideful in the success of other African Americans.

The first of these writers was Phillis Wheatley, an African American slave who struggled to tell the tale of herself and other slaves. Writing in a time where female authors were not

Sojourner Truth was said to be born 1797 as Isabella Van Wagener in modern-day Ghana; in 1806, she was sold into slavery in New York and was set free in 1827. After her new found freedom, Truth began to get involved with the abolition movement; she would be involved in different public functions and conventions where she delivered speeches. Truth started to share her memoirs of slavery and some of her life after her

Phillis Wheatley was a young African American girl, brought to America at the age of seven to be a slave. In her time maturing in the Wheatley household, young Phillis grew rapidly intellectually and spiritually. Her faith in God and His divine nature is what inspired Wheatley to write- a prominent subject in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Another example of God being the backbone of her literary career is in her letter “To the University of Cambridge in New England.” Though Wheatley was a slave, she is known as one of the most prominent poets in the pre-nineteenth century America. Mr. Edgar Alan Poe,

Phillis Wheatley was sold into slavery when she was only 7 years old and sent to North America. She was purchased by a family in Boston—they then taught her how to read and write (Wikipedia, 2016). When she learned how to read, her writing thrived. The Wheatley’s saw that, and continued to encourage to continue on with learning and writing the poems. The people of Boston did not want to support an African-American poet, so Phillis sent her writings to a publisher in London (Poetry Foundation, 2016).

From the beginning, the concepts of double-consciousness have seen in many African American writers work including Phillis Wheatley. The internal struggle between these African-American over what is their true identity, an American or a black slave, is one which been a very popular topic of exploring for many years in the African-American history. Many times African American poets have fight against the fact of double-consciousness. The fight has changed overtime with changing social and surrounding circumstances. This essay will explore W.E.B. Du Bois concept of double-consciousness in Phillis Wheatley poems and demonstrate Wheatley’s experience of double-consciousness, as well as identify her different approach of double-consciousness in

These two women in the 19th century wrote stories and poems that were based on the women's behavior and showed how women were living like back at this time. These stories and poems based on true events prove that women have come a long way and have impacted society by how women can now be apart of more activities and have better opportunities in life to achieve and learn what they want to become educated, independent, and strong than back then. This is something that we all citizens should be appreciating and remembering instead of ignoring.