The Revolutionary Life of Phillis Wheatley
By Jonathan X. Simmons
Imagine almost 250 years ago a young black female abolitionist, with only the power of her intellect and her poetry, speaking truth to power to the founders of the infantile United States of America. Phillis Wheatley’s mere existence as an educated black woman, especially in a time when black people were not legally allowed to read or write in the United States, by itself makes her revolutionary. But her story does not end there. Wheatley used her education, her gift of poetry and her access to people in power to challenge the status quo. Wheatley’s collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was a gateway to deliver what at the time were radical ideas that stared down the newly forming American way of life.. In her work Wheatley rejected the notion that slaves lacked the capacity to be educated. She was smart, creative, and had a propensity for excellence. For a young black girl to have an audience of government officials and university leaders was unheard of. Yet, Wheatley, of West African descent, wore the mask of a dutiful slave girl as she gained access to writing and to power, and, ultimately, to share a vision of freedom and liberation. Wheatley milked her status as a young educated slave girl to expose the moral corruption and hypocrisy of the new country’s leaders by questioning how they could possibly consider themselves men of God while supporting the inhumane treatment of the enslaved. Phillis Wheatley was absolutely revolutionary, and while her work may not appear radical on the surface to someone now, what she was able to do with the platform she was given was nothing short of subversive.
Wheatley’s use of religion in her work is an example of the radical role she played at a time when white people doubted that slaves could be trained religiously and were steered away from having any religious inclination. She celebrates her introduction to Christianity. In her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Wheatley makes the point that all human beings are the same in God’s eyes despite the mistreatment of black people. God’s grace, she writes, is not reserved for a single group of people. In this poem Wheatley writes:
“Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
that there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic dye.”
Remember, Christians, Negros black as Cain
May be refin’d, and joined th’ angelic train.”
Wheatley zeroes in on the disdain for black people when she says “our sable race,” the black race, is viewed with “scornful eye.” Here, Wheatley exposes the contempt and disgust with which slaves were viewed. She is telling white men and women in the colonies in the 1700s that black people will be redeemed in Heaven despite their treatment on earth. Wheatley used religion to make the case that all people were equal and deserving of God’s grace. Perhaps her deep faith in God is what helped her make sense of her place in society and also confident she would not dwell there forever. That faith may also have given her the courage to speak truth to power.
Wheatley used her education to create a new narrative about black people in America. She showed that black people were smart and capable of defying the labels assigned to them. She used the power of the pen to demonstrate the intellectual abilities of black people rather than allowing her place on the social and educational attainment ladder to define her. In a true act of defiance, Wheatley’s poetry celebrates her blackness and her African roots. In her letter “To The University of Cambridge” she refers to herself as an Ethiop, and alludes to being “black as cain.” Who else was a black intellectual in the 1700 daring to celebrate their blackness? Wheatley had an audience in government and higher education. John Hancock wrote the foreword for her collection of poems. She leads the pack as a black intellectual of the time period who could put leaders on notice and have her views receive serious consideration.
Despite Wheatley’s extraordinary example of eloquently revolting against the system of oppression of blacks, it is likely that she only had the access to education, religion and power because the Wheatleys were well-connected and opened doors not available to other Black people. She almost certainly was seen as an anomaly to whites rather than the norm. She likely was known more for being entertainment than for being respected for her literary prowess or her political savvy. It is also worth noting that despite all of her success in America, like Equiano, a slave who also wrote a narrative, she still had to go to London to get her book published. Yet, Wheatley was not deterred because of luck or fate. She regularly spoke out against slavery in her correspondence with leaders of the time and can very easily be considered one of the first abolitionists. In “To The University Of Cambridge” Wheatley directed students “Ye blooming plants of human race divine” to reject sin, their “greatest foe”. She is using the power of her words to call upon students to take the moral high ground as they go through life, and reject sinful choices such as the institution of slavery. It is hard to say whether Wheatley had an audience among powerful decision makers and influencers because of the respect that she garnered or because deep down they knew she was right. Or whether they thought of slaves getting their hands on something as powerful as the institutions of education and religion scared them, but I know where I would put my money if I was a betting man.
It is understandable that some question how enlightened Wheatley really was because from one perspective it seems as if she is viewing herself from the perspective of the white gaze. It is impossible for some to consider poets such as Phillis Wheatley and “Bars Fight” author Lucy Terry “revolutionary” because they are perceived to represent the status quo, the idea that black people were subordinate to whites. Their work, at times, appears to reflect the white world that enveloped them. For example, in Bars Fight, the earliest known poem written by an African American, Terry refers to Native Americans as ‘awful creatures’ and calls her white owners ‘some very valiant men.’ In Wheatley’s case, she attributes her capture to “mercy”. In “To the University of Cambridge” she refers to her “native shore” as the “land of errors.” She suggests that without the journey she would not have come to know God as she has at the time the poem was written. Perhaps this newfound Christianity gives her the capacity to come to terms with the morally corrupt, unchristian manner in which blacks were treated. It is not unreasonable for their literary work, and world view, to be influenced by their life experiences. It is the only world they knew. That, however, does not minimize the important contribution Wheatley’s poetry has made in calling for the world to become a better place.
On the surface it may be difficult to view a young black slave girl with West African origins, as an intellectual peer of the country’s colonizers in a place that made it illegal for her to have any sort of education. Yet, Phillis Wheatley not only received a superior education, she used her intellect to challenge the moral authority of the country’s leaders. Phillis — named after the ship that she arrived on as a captive slave — lived with a constant reminder of her place in society but did not allow herself to be defined by it. Rather, she called out the white man on his morals, values, religion, and politics, all of which actively endorsed the bondage and enslavement of Africans. For these reasons, Phillis Wheatley can be viewed as a revolutionary.
Works Cited
Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and Smith, Valerie A. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2014.
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