“I TAKE THE FREEDOM TO TRANSMIT TO YOU A SHORT SKETCH OF MY VOYAGE AND RETURN FROM LONDON…I WAS RECEIVED IN ENGLAND WITH SUCH KINDNESS AND SO MANY MARKS OF ESTEEM AND REAL FRIENDSHIP AS ASTONISHES ME ON THE REFLECTION.”
Phillis Wheatley left Boston for London aboard the London Packet on May 8, 1773, accompanied by the Wheatley’s son Nathaniel. They arrived on June 17, just as the London newspapers were featuring notices about her forthcoming book of poems, coordinated by Susanna Wheatley.
She left England on July 26 and was back in Boston on September 13, 1773. By October 18, Phillis Wheatley was a free woman.
What happened in London?
After Phillis returned to Boston in September, she wrote with great excitement of her triumphant adventures in London.
“I can’t say but my voyage to England has conduced to the recovery in great measure of my health,” she wrote to her close friend Obour Tanner, a slave in Newport, Rhode Island. “The friends I found there among the nobility and gentry, their benevolent conduct toward me, the unexpected and unmerited civility and complaisance with which I was treated by all, fills me with astonishment. I can scarcely realize it.”
In an extraordinary document now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Phillis details her experiences in London that show how she may have achieved her new found freedom.
On her return to Boston, Phillis wrote a letter to Col. David Worcester in New Haven, Connecticut.
OCTOBER 18, 1773.
SIR:
I AM GLAD TO HEAR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE WELL.
I TAKE THE FREEDOM TO TRANSMIT TO YOU A SHORT SKETCH OF MY VOYAGE AND RETURN FROM LONDON WHERE I WENT FOR THE RECOVERY OF MY HEALTH AS ADVISED BY MY PHYSICIAN.
This shows the extraordinary care the Wheatley family provided for their slave. In other personal letters, Phillis reveals how she suffers from asthma and the Wheatleys sent her out of Boston so she could recuperate in the country air. Her 1834 biographer Margaretta Oddell speaks of the light duties the Wheatleys imposed on Phillis because of her frail health as well as her obvious intellectual gifts. How many slaves had a personal physician?
I WAS RECEIVED IN ENGLAND WITH SUCH KINDNESS, COMPLAISANCE AND SO MANY MARKS OF ESTEEM AND REAL FRIENDSHIP AS ASTONISHES ME ON THE REFLECTION, FOR I WAS NO MORE THAN SIX WEEKS THERE.
Phillis then shares the list of dignitaries she met and visited. Many were well known public figures—celebrities—that people in the colonies would know.
WAS INTRODUCED TO LORD DARTMOUTH AND HAD NEAR HALF AN HOUR’S CONVERSATION WITH HIS LORDSHIP.
THEN TO LORD LINCOLN, WHO VISITED ME AT MY OWN LODGINGS WITH THE FAMOUS DR. SOLANDER, WHO ACCOMPANIED MR. BANKS IN HIS LATE EXPEDITION ROUND THE WORLD.
THEN TO LADY CAVENDISH AND LADY CARTERET WEBB, MRS. PALMER, A POETESS AND AN ACCOMPLISHED LADY.
TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ESQUIRE.
Future founding father, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his nephew describing his visit with the acclaimed poet. “I went to see the black poetess,” he said, “and offered her any serivices I could do her.”
Phillis listed some of the valuable gifts she received—books, especially the complete works of British poet Alexander Pope. She marveled at the “elegance” of her new copy of Milton’s PARADISE LOST which, she said, was “printed on a silver type.”
THE EARL OF DARMOUTH MADE ME A COMPLIMENT OF 5 GUINEAS AND DESIRED ME TO GET THE WHOLE OF MR. POPE’S WORKS AS THE BEST HE COULD RECOMMEND TO MY PERUSAL. THIS I DID.
ALSO, GOT HUDIBRASS, DON QUIXOT AND GAY’S FABLES.
WAS PRESENTED WITH A FOLIO EDITION OF MILTON’S PARADISE LOST PRINTED ON A SILVER TYPE, SO CALLED, FROM ITS ELEGANCE.
Probably the most significant person she met was Granville Sharp. He took her on a tour of the city, the famous Tower of London, the Zoo, Exhibits of Royal Riches, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
GRENVILLE SHARP, WHO ATTENDED ME TO THE TOWER AND SHOWED THE LIONS, PANTHES, TIGERS, ETC., THE HORSE ARMORY…CROWNS, SCEPTRES, DIADEMS, THE FONT FOR CHRISTENING THE ROYAL FAMILY. SAW WESTMINSTER ABBEY, THE BRITISH MUSEUM, COXE’S MUSEUM…THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY AT GREENWICH AND TOO MANY THINGS AND PLACES TO TROUBLE YOU WITH IN A LETTER.
Granville Sharp was one of England’s most prominent and forceful abolitionists who devoted his life tirelessly to freedom for all slaves. He is so well respected in the free African community that towns in Sierra Leone and Jamaica still bear his name.
Granville Sharp was one of the chief forces behind the 1772 decision by the highest Court in Britain that established the free status of any slave who came to England from the colonies.
When Phillis Wheatley arrived in London, many Britons, especially those of African descent, were still celebrating the first anniversary of what many considered the Emancipation Proclamation for English slaves.
Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, ruled that James Somerset, a slave who was brought to England in 1769 from the colonies by his master, could not legally be forced to return. The Mansfield decision in the Somerset case on June 22, 1772 was greeted by euphoria in London’s African-British community. It was widely considered as the moment slavery was abolished in England.
“How aware was Wheatley of the contested status of slavery in England before she arrived in June 1773?” asked Professor Vincent Carretta, editor of COMPLETE WRITINGS OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY (Penguin Books, 2001) and “How willing was she to take advantage of the opportunity it offer her?”
By August 1772, the Mansfield decision was being reported in colonial newspapers.
THE BOSTON GAZETTE ran an article on Monday, September 21, 1772, warning of the implications of the British Mansfield Decision for any slave owner who brings their slaves to England: “As blacks are free now in this country (England), gentlemen will not be so fond of bringing them here as they used to be.”
“Given the press coverage of the ruling and its possible significance,” wrote Professor Carretta, “Mansfield’s judgment was the talk of the town and would have been known to Wheatley either in print or by word of mouth.”
Professor Carretta contends that Phillis’ meeting with Granville Sharp had to plant the idea of freedom squarely in the forefront of her mind.
“It is very difficult to imagine Wheatley and Sharp looking at caged African animals as well as the emblems of British regal glory without the subject coming up of Sharp’s recent judicial triumph in extending British liberty to African slaves,” he wrote.
If Granville Sharp somehow failed to encourage Phillis Wheatley to seek her freedom in England, it “would have been completely out of character for Sharp,” said Carretta. “A slave owner could not have thought of a more dangerous tour guide than Granville Sharp for a slave newly arrived from the colonies.”
As a matter of law, from the moment she set foot on English soil, Phillis Wheatley was a free woman.
Near the end of her letter to Col. Worcester, Phillis Wheatley reveals that she has been given her freedom. She attributes it to “my friends in England”, probably Granville Sharp.
SINCE MY RETURN TO AMERICA, MY MASTER HAS, AT THE DESIRE OF MY FRIENDS IN ENGLAND, GIVEN ME MY FREEDOM.
Phillis took the additional step to make sure all appropriate legal documents were properly filed with the proper authorities so her future earnings and personal property would remain “as my own.”
THE INSTRUMENT IS DRAWN SO AS TO SECURE ME AND MY PROPERTY FROM THE HANDS OF EXECUTORS, ADMINISTRATORS, ETC,. OF MY MASTER AND SECURE WHATSOEVER SHOULD BE GIVEN ME AS MY OWN. A COPY IS SENT TO ISRA. MAUDUIT ESQR., FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
What effect did freedom have on her life and her work?
In her letter to Col. Worcester, she resolved to join the commercial publishing market. She was well aware of the financial need to support herself. She knew she had to sell books.
I EXPECT MY BOOKS WHICH ARE PUBLISHED IN LONDON…WILL BE HERE IN 8 OR 10 DAYS. I BEG THE FAVOUR THAT YOU WOULD HONOUR THE ENCLOS’D PROPOSALS AND USE YOUR INTEREST WITH GENTLEMEN AND LADIES OF YOUR ACQUAINTANCE TO SUBSCRIBE ALSO—FOR THE MORE SUBSCRIBERS THERE ARE, THE MORE IT WILL BE FOR MY ADVANTAGE, AS I AM TO HAVE HALF THE SALE OF THE BOOKS.
For the first time in her life, Phillis Wheatley has to earn her own way in the marketplace.
I AM NOT UPON MY OWN FOOTING AND WHATEVER I GET BY THIS IS ENTERELY MINE AND IT IS THE CHIEF I HAVE TO DEPEND UPON.
Phillis Wheatley signed her letter as a free woman.
EVER RESPECTFULLY,
YOUR OBLIG’D HUMBL. SERV.
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
How did she feel about gaining her freedom? The closest thing we have to a personal statement is her letter to Rev. Samson Occom, February 11, 1774. Later published in the Connecticut Gazette, March 11, 1774, here Phillis Wheatley, makes her own forceful personal statement on her people’s longing for freedom.
“FOR IN EVERY HUMAN BREAST GOD HAS IMPLANTED A PRINCIPLE, WHICH WE CALL LOVE OF FREEDOM. IT IS IMPATIENT OF OPPRESSION AND PANTS FOR DELIVERANCE; AND BY THE LEAVE OF OUR MODERN EGYPTIONANS, I WILL ASSERT, THAT THE SAME PRINCIPLE LIVES IN US.”
“GOD GRANT DELIVERANCE IN HIS OWN WAY AND TIME AND GET HIM HONOUR UPON ALL THOSE WHOSE AVARICE IMPELS THEM TO COUNTENANCE AND HELP FORWARD THE CALAMITIES OF THEIR FELLOW CREATURES. THIS I DESIRE NOT FOR THEIR HURT, BUT TO CONVINCE THEM OF THE STRANGE ABSURDITY OF THEIR CONDUCT, WHOSE WORDS AND ACTIONS ARE SO DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE.”
“HOW WELL THE CRY FOR LIBERTY, AND THE REVERSE DISPOSITION, FOR THE EXERCISE OF OPPRESSIVE POWER OVER OTHERS AGREE—I HUMBLY THINK IT DOES NOT REQUIRE THE PENETRATION OF A PHILOSOPHER TO DETERMINE.”
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Wednesday, December 30th 2009 at 11:04AM
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