“SHE SOON GAVE INDICATIONS OF UNCOMMON INTELLIGENCE AND WAS FREQUENTLY SEEN ENDEAVORING TO MAKE LETTERS UPON THE WALL WITH A PIECE OF CHALK OR CHARCOAL.”
Soon after arriving in Boston at the age of seven, Phillis Wheatley was reading and writing English
According to her 1834 biographer Margaretta Oddell, “She soon gave indications of uncommon intelligence and was frequently seen endeavoring to make letters upon the wall with a piece of chalk or charcoal.”
Ms. Oddell states that “a daughter of Mrs. Wheatley, not long after the child's first introduction to the family, undertook to learn her to read and write.”
It was 18 year old Mary Wheatley who taught Phillis to read.
“Indeed,” writes Oddell, “we very much doubt if she ever had any grammatical instruction, or any knowledge of the structure or idiom of the English language.”
Wheatley scholar John Shields offered a theory to explain Phillis’ remarkably rapid acquisition of English.
“She may have come to America carrying with her a rudimentary knowledge of Arabic script adapted to the Fulani language,” he said, “given the spread of Arabic literacy into the Gambia region just before Wheatley’s infancy.”
In a preface to Phillis’ first book of poems in 1773, her master John Wheatley introduced the author by revealing her background.
“Phillis was brought from Africa to America in the year 1761, between seven and eight years of age. Without any assistance from school education, and by only what she was taught in the family, she, in sixteen months time from her arrival, attained the English language to which she was an utter stranger before, to such a degree, as to read any most difficult parts of the sacred writings to the great astonishment of all who heard her.”
He described her extraordinary progress in acquiring language skills.
“As to her writing, her own curiousity led her to it; and this she learned in so short a time that in the year 1765, she wrote a letter to the Reverend Mr. Occom, the Indian Minister, while in England. She has a great inclination to learn the Latin tongue and has made some progress in it. This relation is given by her Master, who bought her and with whome she now lives.”
The Reverend Samson Occom was a frequent visitor to the Wheatley home. He was an American Mohican Indian who converted to Christianity. Phillis wrote one of her first letters to him while he traveled in England. She was twelve years old.
By any measure, Phillis Wheatley’s rapid mastery of English and her natural inclination toward poetry without the benefit of any formal education qualifies as miraculous—clear evidence of the young woman’s natural genius.
Writes Odell, “By comparing the accounts we have of Phillis' progress, with the dates of her earliest poems, we find that she must have commenced her career as an authoress, as soon as she could write a legible hand, and without being acquainted with the rules of composition.”
Margaretta Oddell described the household circumstances that allowed Phillis the opportunity to write.
“Mrs. Wheatley did not require her services as a domestic,” she wrote, “but she would sometimes allow her to polish a table or dust an apartment, or engage in some other trifling occupation. But not unfrequently, in these cases, the brush and the duster were soon dropped for the pen, that her meditated verse might not escape her.”
According to Ms. Oddell, “Her time, when she was at home, was chiefly occupied with her books, her pen, and her needle…She was allowed, and even encouraged, to follow the leading of her own genius; but nothing was forced upon her, nothing suggested, or placed before her as a lure; her literary efforts were altogether the natural workings of her own mind.”
One reason for the light burden Phillis carried as a slave was her poor health. “The reader is already aware of the delicate constitution and frail health of Phillis,” Ms. Oddell wrote. Scholars today believe Phillis Wheatley suffered from severe chronic asthma. It was certainly one of the factors leading to her death in 1784 at the age of 31.
“As Phillis increased in years,” wrote biographer Oddell, “the development of her mind realized the promise of her childhood. She soon attracted the attention of the literati of the day, many of whom furnished her with books. These enabled her to make considerable progress…We soon find her endeavoring to master the Latin tongue.”
Phillis Wheatley became something of a curiosity—an African slave who could write poetry. Skeptical visitors came to the Wheatley mansion to inquire about the young slave’s supposed talents.
“She was now frequently visited by clergymen, and other individuals of high standing in society,” Oddell wrote.
Living across the street from the Wheatley mansion was the Reverend Mather Byles, a Congregational Minister and Harvard Graduate who was also a well known poet. Reverend Byles owned a personal library of well over two thousand books, one of the largest book collections in the colonies, over two thousand books. Scholars believe that he made his huge library available to young Phillis to further her education.
“A probable scenario,” says historian John Shields, “is that the young and talented girl received instruction in Latin and in poetics from Mather Byles…A champion of poets in his younger days, it is plausible that Byles took an interest in helping to shape Wheatley’s budding talent.”
Margaretta Oddell noted that, “She was very gentle-tempered, extremely affectionate, and altogether free from that most despicable foible, which might naturally have been her besetting sin--literary vanity. She was at all times accessible. If any one requested her to write upon any particular subject or event, she immediately set herself to the task, and produced something upon the given theme.”
Thomas Woolridge, an emissary from England, wrote of his 1772 meeting with Phillis Wheatley:
“While in Boston, I heard of a very extraordinary female slave who made some verses on our mutually dear deceased friend. I visited her mistress and found by conversing with the African that she was no imposter. I asked if she could write on any subject. She said yes. I gave her your name, which she was well acquanted with. She immediately wrote a rough copy of the enclosed address and letter, which I promised to deliver. I was astonished and could hardly believe my own eyes. I was present when she wrote and can attest that it is her own production. They are all wrote in her own hand.”
Her first published poem was inspired by the story of two gentlemen who managed to survive a hurricane in the waters off Cape Cod. An unsigned letter thought to be written by her mistress Susanna Wheatley explained how the poem came to be written. The two visitors to the Wheatley home, Mr. Hussey and Mr. Coffin, and told the harrowing tale of how they were sailing from Nantucket to Boston when a storm overtook them and they narrowly escaped danger and death.
Phillis was there, waiting on them at dinner. She heard their story and later composed her poem commemorating the event. Susanna Wheatley was so taken with her writing that she submitted the poem to a local newspaper, along with a note.
The poem appeared in the NEWPORT MERCURY on December 21, 1767. Phillis Wheatley became a published poet at the age of fourteen.
“To The Printer,” the note began.
”Please to insert the following lines, composed by a Negro Girl (belonging to one Mr. Wheatley of Boston) on the following occasion. Messrs Hussey and Coffin, belonging to Nantucket, being bound from thence to Boston, narrowly escaped being cast away on Cape-Cod in one of the late Storms. Upon their arrival, being at Mr. Wheatley's, and, while at dinner, they told of their narrow escape. This Negro Girl at the same time tending the table, heard the relation, from which she composed the following Verses.”
ON MESSRS HUSSEY AND COFFIN
BY PHILLIS WHEATLEY
Did Fear and Danger so perplex your Mind,
As made you fearful of the Whistling Wind?
Was it not Boreas knit his angry Brow
Against you? or did Consideration bow?
To lend you Aid, did not his Winds combine?
To stop your passage with a churlish Line,
Did haughty Eolus with Contempt look down
With Aspect windy, and a study'd Frown?
Regard them not; — the Great Supreme, the Wise,
Intends for something hidden from our Eyes.
Suppose the groundless Gulph had snatch'd away
Hussey and Coffin to the raging Sea;
Where wou'd they go? Where wou'd be their Abode?
With the supreme and independent God,
Or made their Beds down in the Shades below,
Where neither Pleasure nor Content can flow.
To Heaven their Souls with eager Raptures soar,
Enjoy the Bliss of him they wou'd adore.
Had the soft gliding Streams of Grace been near,
Some favourite Hope their fainting hearts to cheer,
Doubtless the Fear of Danger far had fled:
No more repeated Victory crown their Heads.
Had I the Tongue of a Seraphim, how would I exalt thy Praise; thy Name as Incense to the Heavens should fly, and the Remembrance of thy Goodness to the shoreless Ocean of Beatitude! — Then should the Earth glow with seraphick Ardour.
Blest Soul, which sees the Day while Light doth shine,
To guide his Steps to trace the Mark divine.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Monday, December 28th 2009 at 11:17AM
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