Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

Significance

Phillis Wheatley broke barriers as the first American black woman poet to be published, opening the door for future black authors. James Weldon Johnson, author, politician, diplomat and one of the first African-American professors at New York University, wrote of Wheatley that "she is not a great American poet—and in her day there were no great American poets—but she is an important American poet. Her importance, if for no other reason, rests on the fact that, save one, she is the first in order of time of all the women poets of America. And she is among the first of all American poets to issue a volume."

Verification

Phillis Wheatley had gathered 28 poems and ran advertisements searching for subscribers in Boston newspapers in February 1772 with the aid of her mistress, Mrs. Wheatley. Unable to find a publisher in the American colonies, as it was common among the white educated colonial elite in America to a perceive a racial superiority of whites over blacks. This belief was also held among prominent Enlightenment thinkers, among them David Hume who wrote that "I am apt to suspect the Negroes, and in general all the other species of men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to the whites" and Immanuel Kant who believed that "[t]he Negroes of Africa have by nature no feeling that rises above the trifling." Black Africans were thought unable to reason and therefore only fit for manual labor, and could not produce literature or poetry as they required higher cognitive ability. They looked to London for a publisher more favorable towards poetry authored by an African slave. Wheatley sent her poem On the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, which had previously brought her national attention, to Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, a Calvinist evangelist, who had been a member of Whitefield's parish. She directed Wheatley to a Bostonian bookseller, Archibald Bell, London's foremost bookseller and printer. Bell replied that since Phillis was a slave, he would need proof that she had written the poems herself. It therefore became necessary for Phillis, her master, John Wheatley, as well as many respectable members of Boston to explain how a slave had come to read and write poetry, and to convince readers that work was truly Wheatley's own.

Preface

In what became standard practice for black authors writing in the 18th and early 19th centuries (including Olaudah Equiano and Venture Smith), Wheatley included in her book an apologetic and deferential preface, explaining how the poems "were written originally for the Amusement of the Author, as they were the products of her leisure Moments." her humble upbringings and asks that "the Critic will not severely censure their Defects; and we presume they have too much Merit to be cast aside with Contempt, as worthless and trifling Effusions."

Letter to the Publisher

Included in editions of Poems on Various Subjects is a letter from John Wheatley to Archibald Bell, explaining how Phillis Wheatley was brought from Africa to America at the age of eight as a slave, that she had no prior knowledge of the English language and what she did know, she did not learn from formal education, but from the Wheatley family. The letter also stated that Phillis had begun to learn to Latin and was making "some progress in it".

Attestations

On 8 October 1772, Phillis Wheatley, then about 18 years of age, was interviewed by 18 gentlemen identified publicly "as the most respectable characters in Boston." Among them were John Hancock, who served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,and would be remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, the Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson, the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Andrew Oliver and the Reverend Samuel Mather, son of Cotton Mather and grandson of Increase Mather. The men signed an attestation clause verifying that they believed Wheatley had written the poems herself, as claimed by her owner, John Wheatley. This clause was addressed To the Publick in Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. What sort of questioning Wheatley was subjected to is unknown, for according to Henry Louis Gates "no transcript of the exchanges that occurred between Miss Wheatley and her eighteen examiners" exists today, but Wheatley appears to have "passed [her inquiry] with flying colors."

"AS it has been repeatedly suggested to the Publisher, by Persons, who have seen the Manuscript, that Numbers would be ready to suspect they were not really the Writings of PHILLIS, he has procured the following Attestation, from the most respectable Characters in Boston, that none might have the least Ground for disputing their Original.

WE whose Names are under-written, do assure the World, that the POEMS specified in the following Page,* were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town. She has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them

His Excellency THOMAS HUTCHINSON, Governor The Hon. ANDREW OLIVER, Lieutenant-Governor The Hon. Thomas Hubbard The Hon. John Erving The Hon. James Pitts The Hon. Harrison Gray The Hon. James Bowdoin John Hancock, Esq Joseph Green, Esq Richard Carey, Esq The Rev. Charles Chauncey, D. D. The Rev. Mather Byles, D. D. The Rev. Ed. Pemberton, D. D. The Rev. Andrew Elliot, D. D. The Rev. Samuel Cooper, D. D. The Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead Mr. John Wheatley, her Master

N. B. The original Attestation, signed by the above Gentlemen, may be seen by applying to Archibald Bell, Bookseller, No. 8, Aldgate-Street."

Content

Phillis Wheatley was an avid student of the Bible and especially admired the works of Alexander Pope (1688–1744), the British neoclassical writer. Through Pope's translation of Homer, she also developed a taste for Greek mythology, all which have an enormous influence on her work, with much of her poetry dealing with important figures of her day.

"To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works"

Written to Scipio Moorhead, an enslaved African American artist living in Boston, credited with engraving the frontispiece of Wheatley used in Poems on Various Subjects. The poem follows Wheatley's pattern of offering praise for individuals, in this instance seemingly as gratitude for the frontispiece.

"On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield"

This work brought about Wheatley's initial fame. Published in Boston, Philadelphia and New Haven, it is an elegiac poem written in heroic couplets, in honor of Reverend Whitefield, an influential preacher in New England and the founder of Methodism.

"On Virtue"

Following the style of the Pope, Wheatley invokes Virtue to aid her on her journey through life, and her strife for a higher appellation.

"To the King's Most Excellent Majesty"

Written in honor of King George III, this was a poem of praise for a notable person of the day, as were the subjects of many of Wheatley's poems. Here she praises him on behalf of the American colonies for his repeal of the Stamp Act.

Reception

Wheatley was the first African-American to publish a book, man or woman, and the first to achieve an international reputation when she traveled to London to publish Poems on Various Subjects in 1773. She was noticed by Benjamin Franklin, Brook Watson the Lord Mayor of London, who gave her a copy of Paradise Lost by John Milton, and she was also scheduled to recite a poem for King George III, but Wheatley was unable to attend as she was forced return to Boston a month before Poems on Various Subjects was to be published, due to a fatal illness of her mistress, Susana Wheatley.

Wheatley was unable to publish any additional poetry. Between 30 and 18 October 18 December 1779, she ran six advertisements soliciting subscribers for "300 pages in Octavo", a volume "Dedicated to the Right Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Esq.: One of the Ambassadors of the United States at the Court of France". As with Poems on Various Subjects, however, the American populace would not support one of its most noted poets. An estimated total of 145 of Wheatley's poems have been lost.

Contemporary criticism

Thomas Jefferson panned Wheatley's ability in his Notes on the State of Virginia, writing that "[r]eligion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Wheatley; but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism." However, Wheatley received praise from such notables as Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire, who wrote that Wheatley produced "de très-bons vers anglais" (very good English verse). George Washington responded to a poem Wheatley had composed for him, writing that "however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyrick, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical Talents."

Modern-day criticism

20th-century poetry critic James Johnson notes that, while Wheatley was not a "great" American poet, she was no doubt an "important one". In addition, Johnson notes that her poetry was simply the poetry of the time, that is, the 18th century, and that she was very much influenced by Alexander Pope. Johnson concludes by stating that "her work must not be judged by the work and standards of a later day, but by the work and standards of her own day and her own contemporaries. By this method of criticism she stands out as one of the important characters in the making of American literature, without any allowances for her sex or her antecedents".

It is also argued that Wheatley's position as a slave did not afford her the freedom to truly speak her mind in her poetry. Scholars have recently uncovered poems, letters and facts about Wheatley and her association with 18th-century black abolitionists, and "charted her notable use of classicism and have explicated the sociological intent of her biblical allusions. All this research and interpretation has proven Wheatley's disdain for the institution of slavery and her use of art to undermine its practice".

On Being Brought from Africa to America

In addition to Wheatley's poem "To His Excellency General Washington", "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is among her most often anthologized works. This poem can be said to be among the most controversial poems in African-American literature, as it overlooks the brutality of the slave trade, the horrors of the middle passage and the oppressive life of slavery. But it was written when Wheatley was but sixteen years old, and it cannot be assumed that she was free to express her ideas and feelings given her situation and status as a slave.

'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 die." Remember, Christians, Negros black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th'angelic train.