Wheatley was accused of "acting white'" (Gates), according to Gates, and this accusation was along the same vein as "getting straight A's, or even visiting the Smithsonian" (Gates), Gates reports. The irony is palpable and Gates puts it succinctly when he says, "we have moved from a situation where Phillis Wheatley's acts of literacy could be used to demonstrate our people's inherent humanity and their inalienable right to freedom, to a situation where acts of literacy are stigmatized somehow as acts of racial betrayal" (Gates). He is correct. Somehow publishing Wheatley's experiences with and her opinions of slavery create a tension that is strange. In a moment when pride is all that one should feel, the argument is turned on itself. Wheatley "would weep" (Gates,) writes Gates. The one thing a community does not want to do is back itself into a corner and reforge the "manacles of an earlier, admittedly racist era" (Gates). Wheatley wanted grander things for her work and years later, we can see how she would be pleased with recognition for fighting for what is right.
Phillis Wheatley is one of the most important poets of her day. She stands alone for many reasons but one of the most compelling reasons her poetry remains is because it is filled with hope. This woman, who was forced on a ship when she was a child, had no reason whatsoever to be happy with where she ended up -- regardless of where that might have been. She did end up in America and she did not allow her experience to ruin her life. Instead,...
She learned to read and write and she used poetry as an expression to change minds. She also discovered God, the real source of her hope. She knows that regardless of her situation in America, she must be thankful for being here because of God. She would never have experienced God in Africa and that alone was enough to inspire her to fight for what is right. Her appreciation for coming to America does not include being thankful for slavery. She successfully separates these two ideas in her poetry demonstrating one can exist without the other even in a time of racial unrest.
Works Cited
Adeeko, Adeleke. "Writing Africa under the shadow of slavery: Quaque, Wheatley, and Crowther." Research in African Literatures 40.4 (2009): 1+. Literature Resource Center.
Web. Site Accessed March 21, 2010.
Gates, Henry Louis. "Mister Jefferson and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley" National Endowments
for the Humanities. Web. Site Accessed March 21, 2010.
http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/gates/lecture.html
Wheatley, Phillis. "On Being Brought from Africa to America." Old Poetry Online Database. Web.
Site Accessed March 21, 2010.
Wheatley, Phillis. "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth." Poems on Various
Subjects, Religious and Moral. University of Virginia Library. Web. Site Acessed March 21,
2010.
