Phi lis Wheatley

Level: T
DRA: 44
Genre:
Narrative Nonfiction
Strategy:
Monitor/Clarify
Skill:
Compare and Contrast
Word Count: 2,200
Phillis Wheatley
by Max Tensing
illustrated by Ron Himler
5.3.15
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
ISBN-13:978-0-547-01756-3
ISBN-10:0-547-01756-1
1031603
H O UG H T O N M IF F L IN
Phillis Wheatley
by Max Tensing
illustrated by Ron Himler
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: 16 © North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy.
Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
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Printed in China
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01756-3
ISBN-10: 0-547-01756-1
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An Unusual Meeting
In the spring of 1776, 23-year-old Phillis Wheatley
traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, from her home in
nearby Boston. Even short journeys were difficult in those
early days of the Revolutionary War. But the trip was worth
it. Phillis Wheatley had been invited to meet George
Washington, one of the most important men in America.
It would be a remarkable meeting for three reasons.
First of all, women in America were rarely taken
seriously when it came to politics and public affairs. A
woman alone normally would not have been invited to
meet such an important figure.
Secondly, Phillis Wheatley was black. Until two years
before, Phillis had been enslaved by a prominent Boston
family. She had been freed shortly before her mistress’s
death. Free and formerly enslaved blacks were treated
somewhat better in New England than in the South. Even
so, a formal meeting between a black woman and the commander in chief of the Continental Army was unusual.
Finally, nearly everyone in the crowded waiting room
was a politician, banker, or merchant. These men provided
money and supplies to help the war effort. Phillis Wheatley,
on the other hand, was there because of a poem.
Phillis had written several poems to support the
Revolution. A few months earlier she had sent her poem,
“To His Excellency General Washington,” to George
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Washington himself. The poem praised his leadership.
Washington wrote a response to Phillis saying that he
liked her poetry and wanted to meet her. “If you should
ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters, I shall be
happy to see a person so favored by the Muses.”
We can only guess what went through Phillis
Wheatley’s mind on that spring day. She might have
worried that her dress was too plain for such an occasion.
Perhaps she feared she would become tongue-tied before a
man she so admired. Or maybe she looked back on her life
and marveled at the twists of fate that brought her to a
room full of some of the most powerful men in America.
Phillis Wheatley waits to meet General Washington.
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Stolen from Africa
We know very little about Phillis Wheatley before she
was kidnapped and sold into slavery. According to an early
biographer of Wheatley, Phillis shared only one memory of
her life in Africa. The memory was of her mother kneeling
and bowing to greet the day. This was a Muslim custom
practiced by the Fulani people. The Fulani lived on the west
coast of Africa. Phillis’s memory has helped researchers
determine the part of Africa she most likely came from.
We do know that the ship Phillis was on reached
Boston during the summer of 1761. After a rough sea
journey, she arrived frightened and sick. She had only a
small piece of fabric to wrap around herself as clothing.
Phillis waited on the Beach Street wharf not knowing what
would happen next. She was about seven years old.
The sights, sounds, and smells of Boston were much
different from anything Phillis had ever experienced.
Her home in Africa was probably remote and rural. In
contrast, Boston was an urban center. Horses pulled
carriages along cobblestoned streets lined with tall
brick mansions. Phillis would have heard the peal
of church bells and the cries of seagulls mocking
fishermen as they tried to steal their catch. The
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smells of tea, coffee, and spices would have drifted out
from the shops. The people would have spoken a language
Phillis didn’t understand. And everyone would have been
dressed very strangely. Many of the men had powdered
wigs, and the women wore gowns with tight-fitting tops
and many petticoats beneath their skirts.
Enslaved Africans arrive in Boston.
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One of these women was Susanna Wheatley. She had
come to the wharf with her husband, John. She wanted
to purchase a girl who would work in the house and be
a companion to her as she grew old. Mrs. Wheatley
sensed a special quality in Phillis. It made her disregard
Phillis’s age and select her from among the other females.
Mrs. Wheatley judged her to be intelligent, gentle, and
modest. The Wheatleys purchased the young girl and
called her Phillis for the ship that had brought her to
North America.
Life in the Wheatleys’ house was comfortable.
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Life with the Wheatleys
With any other family, Phillis’s life would have been
completely different. But joining the Wheatley household
was the first bit of good luck Phillis had had since before
she was taken from her home in Africa. The Wheatleys
lived in a large house on one of the busiest streets in
Boston. John was a successful merchant, and the family
lacked for nothing.
More important than the Wheatleys’ wealth, however,
was their attitude toward enslaved people. The Wheatleys’
religion taught them to treat their enslaved blacks as part of
the family. Phillis never had to do tedious chores. She enjoyed
a special place in the family’s lives. Mrs. Wheatley’s daughter,
Mary, wanted to be a teacher. Mary personally undertook
teaching Phillis to read and write.
Perhaps Mary was a brilliant teacher. Maybe Phillis
was a brilliant student. Whatever the reason, Phillis
learned at lightning speed. She did not speak English when
she arrived in Boston. In a little more than a year, she
could not only speak it, she could read and write as well.
Mary didn’t just teach Phillis English. Their lessons
also included astronomy, history, math, poetry, geography, and even Latin. Phillis was like a sponge, soaking
up all the information she could.
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Phillis’s many accomplishments were considered
amazing. Most Americans at that time thought that
Africans were not capable of learning as well as European
colonists. Some believed that they could not learn at
all. Of course, these people rarely tested their theory
by offering enslaved Africans the opportunity to learn.
Phillis Wheatley proved many people wrong. Thanks
to her eagerness to work, she soon had a better education
than many free girls in the colonies.
Phillis Wheatley was eager to learn all she could.
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Phillis Wheatley had to sit at a separate table when dining out.
Phillis easily overcame educational obstacles. But
social obstacles were a bigger problem. Phillis was often
invited to the homes of Boston’s wealthy families. At such
gatherings, people enjoyed talking to Phillis about many
topics. But, because of her skin color, Phillis was not
allowed to dine at the same table with the other guests.
At the same time, Phillis was not allowed to socialize
freely with other enslaved people. One day, Susanna
Wheatley sent an enslaved African named Prince to bring
Phillis home. When they arrived, Mrs. Wheatley became
very angry with Prince for having Phillis sit next to him
on the coachman’s seat rather than inside the carriage
where the family belonged. Although Phillis eventually
became close with another enslaved girl, Obour Tanner,
she must certainly have felt trapped between two worlds.
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A Poet Is Born
By the time she was 12, Phillis Wheatley, who loved to
write, was exchanging letters on important subjects with
some of the smartest people in Boston. When Phillis first
began to write poetry, she mimicked the style of one of her
favorite authors, English poet Alexander Pope.
One day, two friends of the Wheatleys, Mister
Hussey and Mister Coffin, visited from Nantucket Island.
Over dinner, the men told a story of how they had nearly
been shipwrecked and killed in a squall on their way to
Boston. Phillis listened intently as they described the
awesome storm. A few days later she wrote a poem about
their incredible adventure. Susanna Wheatley was very
impressed with the poem. So was the newspaper editor
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was famous for using
“heroic couplets” in his writing. In this style of writing,
poets use paired rhyming lines to tell a story.
“In Wit, as Nature, what affects our hearts
Is not th’ exactness of peculiar parts;
`Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.”
This example of heroic couplets comes from Alexander
Pope’s “An Essay on Criticism.”
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she sent it to. In 1767, the Newport Mercury printed
“On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin.” It was Phillis’s first
published poem. She was just 14 years old.
Phillis continued writing poetry. She wrote poems
on events that led to the American Revolution. She wrote
about Britain’s enactment of the Stamp Act, which many
colonists felt was an unfair tax on Americans. Phillis wrote
a poem about the Boston Massacre, in which British troops
opened fire on protesters. Another poem was about a boy
who was killed by a British Loyalist.
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Phillis Wheatley
summons up an
idea for a poem.
The Book
Phillis Wheatley was also inspired by the religious
teachings of George Whitefield. Whitefield was an
English minister who believed that slavery was wrong.
He traveled to America and preached throughout New
England, where Mrs. Wheatley met him and became a
follower. When Whitefield died, Phillis’s poem about him
touched people in America and in England. In London,
the poem came to the attention of the Countess of
Huntingdon, Whitefield’s patroness. As his chief supporter, the countess was grateful for Phillis’s praise for
him. Suddenly, Phillis had become an internationally
famous poet. Susanna Wheatley felt it was time for her
to publish a book.
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Publishing a book was a difficult process for any
author in the 1770s. But it was even more difficult for
Phillis Wheatley. Because she was enslaved, no publisher
believed she had written her poems. Susanna Wheatley
decided to organize a group of important Bostonians
who would say that Phillis was the true author.
Phillis Wheatley met with 18 of Boston’s most
respected men. Among them was John Hancock, the
governor of Massachusetts. He would later sign the
Declaration of Independence. We do not know exactly
what happened at this meeting. But she must have performed brilliantly, for the men signed a letter stating that
Phillis was indeed the author of her poems. She was well
on her way to being published.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~
“…The Poems specified in the
following Page[s] were (as we verily
believe) written by PHILLIS, a young
Negro Girl, who was but a few Years
since, brought… from Africa, and has
ever since been, and now is, under the
Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a
Family in this Town.”
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Journey to England
Even with her letter of endorsement, no American
publisher would print a book of poetry written by an
enslaved person. Susanna Wheatley wrote to the
Countess of Huntingdon, who agreed to finance the
publication of Phillis’s book in London. This might not
have been the most efficient way to publish a book. But
Susanna Wheatley was determined that Phillis succeed.
In another remarkable twist in her life, Phillis again
boarded a ship. This time she was accompanied by the
Wheatleys’ son. The ship took Phillis to England where,
even though she was still enslaved, she was welcomed into
English society. Members of England’s finest families
wanted to meet the American poetess. She even had an
appointment to meet King George III!
Before she could meet the king, however, she received
an urgent message from Boston. Susanna Wheatley was
dying. Phillis sailed home on the first available ship.
Susanna Wheatley died in the spring of 1774. She had
lived to see Phillis publish a book. Modest to the end, Mrs.
Wheatley asked Phillis not to write a poem about her death.
Phillis honored her wish, but we do know how much she
grieved from a letter she wrote to a friend. “I have lately
met with a great trial in the death of my mistress… I was
treated by her more like a child than her servant.”
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Before his wife’s death, John Wheatley freed Phillis
from slavery. She had overcome incredible odds to become
not only the first enslaved female African to publish a
book, but a free woman as well.
The General Will See You Now
As she sat in George Washington’s waiting room,
Phillis Wheatley may have been remembering many of
these events. While everyone else in the room continued
waiting, Phillis was called in to see General Washington.
They may have discussed the war or books or Phillis’s
poetry. We don’t know for sure. But since Washington
spent half an hour chatting with her and only a few
moments with some of his more prominent guests, we
can guess that the conversation between “the father
of our country” and “the mother of African American
literature” was very interesting indeed.
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The End of an Amazing Life
The Revolutionary War was hard for the colonists. It
was especially hard for Phillis Wheatley. People spent their
money on food and shelter rather than books—especially
books of elegant poetry. Phillis continued writing but
earned little for her efforts. Mr. Wheatley provided a home
for her until his death in 1778. Phillis married then, but her
husband, a free black grocer, made some very bad business
deals. She ended up working as a housemaid and doing the
kind of hard work she had never had to do for the Wheatleys.
Phillis Wheatley died, very poor, at the age of 31.
Today Boston
remembers Phillis
Wheatley with
this statue.
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Phillis Wheatley’s Life
1753 — Phillis Wheatley is born in Africa.
1761 — Phillis is kidnapped, brought to America,
and sold into slavery.
1765 — Phillis corresponds with important
Bostonians.
1767 — Phillis’s first poem is printed.
1770 — Phillis writes a poem on the death
of George Whitefield.
1773 — Phillis’s book of poems is published
in London.
1774 — Phillis is freed from slavery by John Wheatley.
Susanna Wheatley dies.
1776 — Phillis meets General George Washington.
1778 — John Wheatley dies.
1784 — Phillis Wheatley dies.
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Responding
Compare and Contrast How
were Phillis Wheatley and Mary Wheatley alike?
How were they different? Copy and complete the
diagram below to show your answers.
TARGET SKILL
Phillis Wheatley
born
in Africa,
then sold
into slavery
and brought
to North
America
Both
?
Mary Wheatley
?
Write About It
Text to Text Think about another selection you have
read that tells about a writer or poet. Write a few
paragraphs telling about that writer’s life and
accomplishments.
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TARGET VOCABULARY
efficient
peal
lacked
personally
mimic
rural
mocking
summons
organize
tedious
TARGET SKILL Compare and Contrast Examine
how two or more details or ideas are alike and different.
TARGET STRATEGY Monitor/Clarify As you read,
notice what isn’t making sense. Find ways to figure out
the parts that are confusing.
GENRE Narrative Nonfiction gives factual information
by telling a true story.
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Level: T
DRA: 44
Genre:
Narrative Nonfiction
Strategy:
Monitor/Clarify
Skill:
Compare and Contrast
Word Count: 2,200
Phillis Wheatley
by Max Tensing
illustrated by Ron Himler
5.3.15
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
ISBN-13:978-0-547-01756-3
ISBN-10:0-547-01756-1
1031603
H O UG H T O N M IF F L IN