Impact Of Slavery On African American Literature

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.

First of all with Phillis Wheatley's biography, it is understood that some masters recognized that slaves were not just animals but intelligent creatures with the ability to learn different subjects. However, this was not enough to set them free most of the time. When Phillis Wheatley's masters were asked by the british why they kept her as a slave even though she was so intellectual, they tried to justify their act by saying that she was not treated as other slaves, making it sound like she was somewhat "privileged". We can also see that Phillis Wheatley was an excellent writer because her writing was well received in the colonies and

Even though, Phillis Wheatley was a slave, she became one of the most recognized poets of her time. She became educated unlike most slaves and even some poor white Americans. It was illegal at that time in some states to teach slaves how to read. Through her writings she made it possible that African-Americans could be viewed as imaginative and intelligent. In her poems and letters she discussed slavery. She points out that Africans should be treated humanely. She even reprimanded slavery. Wheatley writing these poems in a way meant that Africans were actually human beings and not property. If that was the case, then they must be emancipated from slavery.

Phillis Wheatley was an African-born slave in the last quarter of the eighteenth-century in New England. She was born in West Africa and brought to America on the slave ship Phillis. She was, however, much more than chattel-she was a poet. Phillis was the first African American to have a book published. In a time when women were not expected to be able to read or write, and when teaching an African American to be literate was frowned upon, Phillis Wheatley became educated in Latin and English literature. The education of Phillis Wheatley was, for the most part, for the intent of training "a servant and would-be companion for domestic utility," in which they undoubtedly succeeded. However, they "got an

Born in West Africa on May 8, 1753, Phillis Wheatley, has been through a rough childhood. She was kidnapped by slave ships that transport slaves with unsuitable health or age and sent to America at the age of 7. She arrived at Boston Massachusetts at fragile health and was instantly brought into slavery. From slave markets to the labor, she was exposed to all of it at a very young age. Shortly after being brought to America, she was purchased by John wheatley, a wealthy man as a gift for his wife (Poets.org); hence her last name “Wheatley”. Although this meant that she now had to work as a slave, she was fortunate enough to have a family that cherished education.

Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American woman in America to publish a book of poems. The poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley is quite a short poem with a dominant meaning of the journey a slave had to go through. After reading this poem several times, I realized that each stanza had a representation. Each introduces the different obstacles that Phillis Wheatley had to face when kidnapped into being brought to America. The most symbolic meaning of this poem is the way she represented darkness and religion helping her along her way of being brought to America.

Slave narratives were the dominant literary mode in the early African-American literature. Thousands of accounts and writings, some legitimate and some fiction of white abolitionists, were published in the years between 1800 and the Civil War. These documents were written to promote the antislavery cause and to describe in detail how slaves were typically treated in the south. Most slave narratives in this time period attempted to appeal to the emotions of the white readers and often described of the severe whippings and injuries inflicted on black slaves. Like most all slave narratives, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by slave Harriet Jacob’s, intends to make white Americans aware of the sexual victimization that slave woman faced as well as to share her experience with abuse of slavery, her daily struggles to gain respect, and the details of her escape. Jacob’s story strongly emphasizes the problems faced by female slaves involving sexual abuse and separation of family. Due to the skilled, honest, and complete way she tells her story, it has become one of the most popular and most read slave narratives of all time. This primary source supports many themes from secondary sources pertaining to slavery. Brenda E. Stevenson’s “Slave Marriage and Family Relations” and Nell Painter’s “Soul Murder and Slavery” are two readings which specifically connect to Jacob’s story. Jacob’s supports the interpretations of gender and sexuality themes from these readings in

Chained to the inhumane bonds of slavery, Phillis Wheatley broke through what seemed impossible to achieve freedom as the mother of African American literature and poetry. Paving the way to a future of hope and freedom, Wheatley gave blacks a voice by inspiring the minorities of the time to rejoice and be proud of their god given skin. Wheatley's poetry attracted considerable attention, and her fame spread from New England to Europe as this articulate poetry was written by a black woman. At a difficult time where slaves’ rights and overall humanity were heavily questioned and undermined, poet Phillis Wheatley’s remarkable breakthrough as the first black publisher in America has allowed her to shed awareness on the importance of social justice.

Harriet A. Jacobs develops a trustworthy and compelling character, Linda Brent, who conveys the story of her difficult life under the hold of the slave labor institute. Linda exposes the horrifying tales of the incidents that have happened as a result of the corrupted culture of slavery in the south. Slavery was accepted as a way of life and the women that were slaves were abused and tortured emotionally and sexually, something that Linda Brent attests to in, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Being that these narratives are told from the prospective of a woman, the idea of sexual oppression of slave women is a prevalent theme that attests to the overall theme of the

Frederick Douglass was born into the lifelong, evil, bondage of slavery. His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, depicts his accomplishments. The narrative, however, is not only the story of his success. It is not simply a tale of his miraculous escape from slavery. Frederick Douglass' narrative is, in fact, an account of his tremendous strides through literacy. He exemplifies a literate man who is able to use the psychological tools of thought to escape the intense bonds of slavery.

If one word can change the life, then what about a book? Books are ours true friends that never get busy to give immense account on what thing are really like. Literature is an art of writing where the writers express the human experiences in their specific kind of language i.e. to communicate the information.

As an African American woman, my passions are deeply rooted in my identity. The ways in which African Americans as well as women create works of literature in order to empower and govern their identities is of central importance to me. With entities such as NAACP, Black Lives Matter, and many more social groups rising to champion the needs and wants of the community, it is important that there is a strong foundation voicing what those needs are. In dealing with writers directly related to the culture, who describe the predicament of the individual in a specific time and place, I hope to evaluate the

Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction…I was born and reared in Slavery…I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse. (Jacobs)

During the times when writers like Phillis Wheatley came to be established in literature, the culture of African-Americans was based mostly on slavery life and protesting for freedom and equality. Through poetry, epistle, slave narrative, and memoirs, writers during the 18th century expressed the struggles they endured and transitioned from a traditional style of writing during the Neoclassical literary period using iambic pentameter appealing to logos, to appealing more to pathos and using more imagery in writings during the Romanticism period. The research conducted in this paper will give a very detailed analysis on the influence of Phillis Wheatley's early African-American literature on African-American writers after her. Authors such as David Walker followed her footsteps.

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was the first African-American woman in America to have publish a series of poems. Although having such an incredible recognition, her roots did not start in America. She was brought as a slave from Africa at a young age. She was sold and bought by the patriarch of the Wheatley family as a gift to his wife. Unlike other slave owners, Wheatley was encouraged to have an education. After having been taught to read, she came to know the bible; she later uses Christianity as a main theme is many of her poetry. Another recurring theme is race, such as in “On Being Brought from Africa to America (17??).” In the poem, she discusses her voyage to America as a slave and Christianity “saving” her [fix later]. There has been controversy about whether or not Phillis Wheatley sees her enslavement as a positive thing as it brought her to Christianity or as a negative as it took her freedom. By Wheatley’s use of allusion, symbolism, and tone, the audience is able