Three Women Writers: A Study in Virtue and Christianity of the 18th and 19th centuries
The popularity of Toni Morrison's Beloved has recently awakened a mainstream interest in African-American literature. Writers, such as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes, have also facilitated the infiltration of African American voices into popular culture. This website is devoted to three women who, like Morrison and Angelou, have aided in the formation and development of the African American literary tradition, but often remain unremembered in today's society.
Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, and Harriet Wilson have all made valuable contributions in the forms of poetry, narrative, and fiction to the early stages of a growing literary tradition. Although these women portrayed different viewpoints, utilized different writing styles, and wrote within different contexts many comparisons can be made amongst their work. Specifically this site focuses on the common themes of virtue and Christianity represented in the authors' work and in their lives.
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Phillis Wheatley
Wheatley was born in Africa in the early 1750's and was brought to Boston in 1761 as a slave. The Wheatley family, who was a prominent family in the Boston community, purchased her. The Wheatley's encouraged and taught her, and within sixteen months Phillis was reading and writing fluent English. At the age of fourteen she was writing poetry and hailed as a prodigy of her race. In 1773, Wheatley's first and only published volume, entitled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was released. After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley, Phillis was left to support herself as a poet and sea...
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...n she is free. But, in Our Nig, Frado is treated like a slave and feels confined by the Bellmonts, yet she is a free person. In this way, Wilson seems to complicate and combine these binaries.
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Bibliography
Bennett, Jr. Lerone. Before the Mayflower: A history of Black America. New York: Penguin, 1988.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Penguin, 1987.
Shields, John, ed. The Collected works of Phillis Wheatley. New York: Oxford, 1988.
Wilson, Harriet E. Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. New York: Vintage, 1983.
Voices from the Gaps: Harriet E. Adams Wilson http://www.~engl.cla.umn.edu/Lkd/vfg/Authors/HarrietE.AdamsWilson
Voices from the Gaps: Phillis Wheatley http://www.~engl.cla.umn.edu/Lkd/vgf/Authors/PhillisWheatley
Wheatley was born in West Africa around 1750, and was captured when she was 7. John Wheatley purchased Phillis for his wife, Susanna; together they taught Phillis how to read and write, and as early as 12, Phillis was writing poetry and her first poem had been published. Wheatley’s poems implicitly advocated for racial equality, while condemning slavery. Her work received some negative feedback from political figureheads, such as Thomas Jefferson. White America classified a human as having the ability to read, write, and reason; therefore, leaving no room for the uneducated Africans, seeing Africans as nonhuman. Jefferson claimed Wheatley’s work was not literature because the moment he admitted Wheatley’s work was indeed literature, he would have had to admit she was a human being. The way Phillis Wheatley handled the adversity she faced is admirable. Wheatley definitely impacted American history, and “owes her place in history to advocates of inequality” (Young 1999
Phillis Wheatley overcame extreme obstacles, such as racism and sexism, to become one of the most acclaimed poets in the 18th Century. Her works are characterized by religious and moral backgrounds, which are due to the extensive education of religion she received. In this sense, her poems also fit into American Poetry. However, she differs in the way that she is a black woman whose writings tackle greater subjects while incorporating her moral standpoint. By developing her writing, she began speaking out against injustices that she faced and, consequently, gave way to authors such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Countee Cullen.
Hopkins, Pauline E. Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South. New
The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience. Ed. Gabriel Burns Stepto. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003.
She has written many famous poems, including “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth.” Phillis was sold into slavery at the age of seven and brought to North America from Africa. She did not know how to speak English at that time. She was purchased by the Wheatley family. They taught her how to read and write as she displayed great talent and brilliance. Just like Booker T. Washington she was unable to understand the conditions black people have to face when they are enslaved. In the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” Phillis narrated her story. She is saying that it was great luck that she was brought here. The Wheatley family did her a huge favor by bringing her here. Africa is her pagan land. She says that coming to America introduced her to Christianity. Christianity is the religion which taught her reality, peace, salvation and moral values. This religion gave her an opportunity to explore and understand herself, and get out of her sinful state. Christianity saved her life which she was unaware of. All the dilemmas that she is facing in America are nothing compared to if she had remained unsaved in Africa. This shows her favoritism towards slavery, she would rather want to remain a slave then being in
Puckett, Caleb. "Phillis Wheatley." American Writers, Supplement XX: A Collection of Literary Biographies: Mary Antin to Phillis Wheatley. Ed. Jay Parini. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2010. 277-91. Print.
Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company , Inc. , 2004. Print.
Locke, Alain. ?The New Negro.? Black Nationalism in America. John H. Bracey Jr. New York/Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc, 1970. 334-347.
The level of her intelligence is evident through out her poems as she makes reference to various subjects such as religion and politics. She was one of the pioneers to disprove the majority consensus that Africans are incapable of learning such kinds of knowledge. Although the exact understanding of her identity is ambiguous to many, It is quite clear to see that in her poems she envisioned better times ahead where all regardless of race and color can live in peace and harmony. Through her poems, Wheatley subtly expressed her visions, imaginations of the new world “Columbia” where America will be unified, free from oppression and tyranny.
The purpose of this essay is to clearly acknowledge similarities as well as differences amongst two great writers: Phyllis Wheatley and Paul L. Dunbar. Wheatley and Dunbar were two brilliant African American writers born of two different centuries. Both began writing at an early age and were seen as black child prodigies of their times.
Each of Phillis Wheatley’s poems is crafted with a specific purpose in mind. Although her use of heroic couplets stays mostly standard, she does leave room for adaptations that offer some insight into her ultimate purpose. While many of her poems humble her own position, often it is indeed for a specific cause, usually to convey a point she could not have otherwise communicated without fear of chastisement. On the other hand, speaking on religious matters she seems to feel bold enough to elevate her own position to that of an authority figure, giving guidance and hope to those in need of it.
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