Richard Luther King, Jr.

The illustration that Phillis Wheatley portrays in history is an African-American woman who wrote poetry. Her life goes more into depths that what is perceived, however. Phillis Wheatley uses her poetry as a unique way to get out the truth. Through poems such as On Being Brought From Africa to America and the poem about Lee, she made statements about was what going on at that time; a revolution. Phillis Wheatley was known as a revolutionary mother, for she gave hope to slaves, ease to whites, and was an influence to America. She was not known for conflict or trying to start an argument, but she more known for personalizing her thoughts onto a piece of paper, read by all of America. Her ideas were used as an influence during

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.

many people still did not want to change. It took a strong leader, a person who believed in peace and justice for blacks, and Martin Luther King Jr. was that man.

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 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.

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most famous civil rights activists in the history of the United States. He gave several important speeches and promoted non-violent protests. His most famous speech was “I Have A Dream”, around a quarter of a million patrons, black and white, attended this empowering speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The reason his speech was vastly successful in the movement against segregation and injustice was because of its repetitiveness.

Phillis Wheatley drew attention in the 18thcentury for being a black slave, and a child prodigy who was able to write poems and songs. She was born in Gambia, Africa, and brought to Boston as a slave when she was a child, and became slave and companion to John Wheatley’s wife. As she grew older, John Wheatley’s wife viewed her as a feeble and brilliant girl who deserves to be educated and felt great affection toward her. Therefore, Susanna Wheatley’s daughters taught Phillis how to read and write, so she delivered her honest opinions through her writings (Baym and Levine 763). Then she became the first African American writer to publish a book of poetry while other slaves were forbidden to learn how to read and write. Her ability to write and read gave her freedom of expression and enabled her to become a free woman. Her literacy influenced her surroundings in numerous ways. She was acknowledged by many people for her great poetical talents (“Phillis Wheatley, the First” para 3). In the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Phillis Wheatley appeals to ethos and pathos, uses suitable diction and a metaphor to demonstrate that the discrimination of Africans is barbarous, and encourages people to not judge by physical characteristics, but consider innate qualities.

"sable race" and "diabolic die," these are the images how Phillis pictured the racism that was in its heyday in the eighteenth century when the poem was written. Especially, that was between blacks and whites, discussed by Wheatley boldly, originated from her belief in equality; she entered Christianity proof that all are equal regardless of their races and skin colors. Secondly, the poem contains a lot of the language of religion: "God", "Savior" and "redemption". Discuss about the faith never end. In other words, Wheatley did not speak within a paragraph or two about religion. Moreover, the religious aspect in the poem had an absolute importance. The transition from Africa to America is, indeed, the transition from life to the new and different life that change opened Wheatley's eye on things were not already know as religion, God and salvation. However, the result intertwined in this, with the identity of an African woman -pagan- and Christian -white-. Except if, this overlap, in my opinion, is a vital and influential side in the poem. An important point to mention, this poem of Phillis is one of a few poems for her biography. Additionally, the use of the first person narrator made the poem more personalization. "On Being..." is clearly an internal monolog through the narrator's soul and sound. It ignited a rivalry and conflict between the identities Christianity, African, and Pagan. Also, dealt with two levels of identity are important: spiritual -Christian and Pagan- social -slaves and owners-.

Reading the works of Phillis Wheatley are more so confused on the high praise that she bestows upon the Europeans that we know have taken her from her homeland due to the enslavement of the African people. Her passion to write about the importance of the Christian religion is reflected in her work including her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” In this poem, she explains her appreciation for the white race. Being of the enslaved people during this time, is puzzling to read such things but intrigues one to comprehensively understand why she feels this way. She touches on different themes such as race, religion, and self-identity. Wheatley makes a bold statement to express how being introduced to Christianity has modified her

Around the age of 13, Phillis published her first poem. Phillis was the first African-American female poet in history. By the time she turned 18, she had a total of 28 poems wrote. Mrs. Wheatley helped her run advertisements and helped her promote these poems. She had much success with that, she had many other good ones that followed. In 1773, her book called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published (Biography.com).

Phillis Wheatley was a slave from West Africa who was kidnapped by human traffickers and brought to Boston at the young age of seven. Later she became the servant of Susanna Wheatley. Being a house slave meant that Wheatley was exposed to western ideology like the bible which caused her to leave paganism and become a born again Christian. Phillis truly did believe that the bible was a guide for life like the revolutionaries did. It could reasoned that she could have chronic Stockholm syndrome because she says “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train”( Wheatly,55) though her race are the evil seeds of Cain, the first murderer in bible. She thought black people could be saved if they believe in

Rather, an enrich flavor of colorful delight, a woman before her time, examine the otherness perceptive, Phillis Wheatley. Born in Africa, she was shipped to Boston and bought the Wheatley’s Family. There, she was encouraged to learn to read and write along with the Wheatley’s daughters. It was even said by Vincent Carretta that she would know to be always before her time. Ms. Phillis Wheatley would read materials that were above the majority of her peers at the time. Just like the Hammons, John Wheatley, Phillis owner, was a progressive. He provided Phillis with an education unknown for an enslaved person at the time. The Wheatley’s older children would tutor Phillis that by the age of 12, she was reading Greek, Latin, and even difficult passages from the bible. This for a time became something for the Wheatley’s Family to show off to their friends and family, likening to a tropic case. Eventually, Phillis was given the opportunity to primary focus on her

August 28, 1963 (Eidenmuller) marked a very important day in history that had an impact not only on America, but the whole world. On this day, Martin Luther King Jr. presented his well known I Have a Dream speech that aimed to eliminate racism, inequality and discrimination. He strongly believed that one day people would put their differences aside and come together. So, what happened to that dream? Along with other equality initiative ideas, they rarely make it past the idea stages or end in the actual eradication result. It is clear to us that even after 51 years, our societies still struggle with accepting full equality. Within those 51 years we have made a mass amount of progress but, a common thought would be that after this long the issue should have been eradicated. Two essays that can be used as an example of proof that racial inequality still exists in our society are, Black Men in Public Spaces by Brent Staples and Who Shot Johnny? by Debra Dickerson. In these essays, both provide solid evidence to support their main goal with the use of different writing styles, tone, and rhetorical devices to display how African Americans are perceived and treated by society.

Phillis Wheatley is a Gambian born African American poet. She was bought off of the slave trade by the Wheatley family from Boston. Her love of writing was influenced by the reassurance of the Wheatley family who taught her how to read and write. The family encouraged her poetry and helped develop her literature skills. Phillis is known for becoming the first published African American poet. Many see her as the first writer to develop a genre of African American literature. Through an analysis of Wheatley’s work we can see how her influential work tends to carry themes from the point of view of American colonists. Her work also contains a general critique of slavery and descriptions of her attitudes towards the circumstances forced upon the enslaved.