[00:05.96]Philtis Wheattey's first major work was "An Elegiac Poem on the Death of the Celebrated Divine."
[00:14.52]It waspublished in 1770.
[00:17.53]Phillis wrote the long poem to honor a famous clergyman who had died.
[00:22.96]Phillis wrote mostly about religion and morals.
[00:27.85]Many of her poems were created at the request of someone to honor a family member who had died.
[00:34.80]Her poems are representative of the times.
[00:38.58]They expressed common reactions to personal events such as deaths or marriages.
[00:44.98]Or they honored public events such as battles.
[00:48.51]Phillis had an unusual life fora slave.
[00:52.48]Mrs.Wheatley had stopped having Phillis do house cleaning jobs.
[00:56.95]She made sure Phillis had time to study and to visit the family friends.
[01:03.50]But Phillis was not permitted to make friends with other uneducated slaves.
[01:09.43]So she remained separate from both white and black worlds.
[01:15.31]While she was considered above the other black slaves, she was never considered an equal of white slave owners.
[01:24.48]One time she was invited to dinner in the home of one of Mrs.Wheatley's relations.
[01:30.70]The servants said that it was the first time they ever carried food to a woman with skin their color.
[01:38.69]But Phillis usually sat at a table separate from the white people at a dinner party.
[01:44.88]Phillis Wheatley became famous in Europe as well as in America.
[01:50.55]She travelled to London in 1773 and gave poetry readings there.
[01:57.00]She was twenty years old.
[01:59.67]The writings of the young slave from Africa surprised everyone.
[02:04.68]During her visit in London,she was to have been presented to King George the third.
[02:10.53]But she received urgent news from America.
[02:14.19]Mrs. Wheatley was very sick and had asked that Phillis return to Boston.
[02:19.05]Phillis returned home quickly.
[02:21.45]That meant she missed the publication in London of her book poems on various subjects, religious and moral.
[02:29.73]It contained thirty-eight of her poems.
[02:33.44]It was the first published book written by a black person in America.
[02:37.86]And it was only the second book written by an American woman.
[02:42.32]Newspapers in London highly praised her poems.
[02:46.74]Her book sold very well there and later in America.
[02:51.47]Phillis Wheatley had one more brief period of being famous.
[02:57.01]In 1775, she wrote a poem about George Washington.
[03:03.56]He had become commander of the colonial forces in the American Revolution.
[03:10.04]The poem was called "His Excellency General Washington."
[03:15.27]It called Washington "first in peace and honors."
[03:20.72]She sent her poem to him.
[03:23.10]Some time later,she was invited to visit George Washington in his headquarters.
[03:30.02]It was an unusual visit between a black woman poet and a military commander.
[03:37.03]Phillis took care of Susannah during her Iong final sickness.
[03:42.15]When Mrs. Wheatley died in March, 1774, Phillis wrote that she had lost a friend and parent.
[03:50.09]After Susannah's death, Phillis was freed by the Wheatley family.
[03:54.66]But her life became more difficult.
[03:57.61]She married John Peters, a free black man.
[04:01.14]He failed in many business attempts.
[04:04.24]Their three children died at a very young age.
[04:07.69]Phillis tried to publish another book of her poems.
[04:11.74]But now that she was free, she had lost her appeal as a slave poet.
[04:17.12]Phillis Wheatley died poor and alone in 1784. |