The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s _The Trials Phillis Wheatley_ considers Phillis Wheatley's career through the eyes of her readers over two centuries, from elite Massachussetts whites who in 1772 quizzed Wheatley to determine if she, a young slave, had indeed composed the poems herself, to twentieth-century critics who find her voice inauthentic and too forgiving of her white enslavers. Gates' book is a longer version of the prestigious Jefferson Lecture, which he gave in 2002, and is a great introduction to Phillis Wheatley. Wheatley's writing career, in particular her mastery of the classical forms of eighteenth-century English prosody, is fascinating. Wheatley was kidnapped as a seven-year old from her home in West Africa in 1761, survived the terrible Middle Passage, and then was sold into bondage to the Wheatley family in Massachusetts. Nine years later in 1770, at the age of 16, despite lacking formal schooling and having only nine years exposure to English, she was a published poet. Two years later in 1772 she published a volume of poetry _Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral_, which was the first book of poems published by a person of African origin. What is so strong about Gates' book is his discussion of the impact of Wheatley's poems and how her mastery of literacy challenged the racist ideology of slaveholders and their supporters. Wheatley corresponded with George Washington and other luminaries, and the international sensation of her poems prompted Thomas Jefferson to critique them as being unoriginal. Gates argues that Jefferson's critique in _Notes on the State of Virginia_, grounded in racism and defensiveness, ironically shaped African American literature in its vibrant, sustained critique of Jefferson's claims by contemporary and later writers, such as David Walker, William Hamilton, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, and many others. Gates concludes his book by discussing how Wheatley's reputation slowly changed in the nineteenth century, mainly due to interpretations of one poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America." Gates writes that for a number of readers, "the paragon of Negro achievement, was now given a new role: race traitor." Gates' work presents an excellent, readable overview of Wheatley's career by drawing from the breadth of existing scholarship. He makes a strong argument that Wheatley needs to be read with an awareness of late eighteenth-century history and understood for her vital contribution. Two criticisms of the book: First, I wish Gates had also published Wheatley's poems, which are expensive to purchase and not widely available in bookstores, and then made his work an introduction to the poems. Second, on a related point, I wish that Gates had interpreted more poems. Wheatley's poems are rich with transcultural underpinnings and insights, and it would have been wonderful to read more of his explications of her work. Her work can be challenging for contemporary readers un

Gates' book places the writing life of Phillis Wheatley into a context that should prompt readers to reexamine popular condemnations (past and present) of her credibility and literary merit. This text is a refreshing reminder that we readers have a responsibility "to learn to read Wheatley anew, unblinkered by the anxieties of her time and ours. That's the only way to let Phillis Wheatley take a stand. The challenge isn't to read white, or read black; it is to read. If Wheatley stood for anything, it was the creed that culture was, could be, the equal possession of all humanity. It was a lesson she was swift to teach, and that we have been slow to learn" (89-90). This book is a quick read and would be an ideal text for instructors.

In 1773 a young woman burst onto the literary scene. And what made this particular author a sensation? The young woman in question was Phillis Wheatley, an African slave writing poetry in English. Her slender books of poems was a literary first, causing critics to mutter. Brought before an panel of eighteen learned gentleman of the time, Phillis Wheatley proved that persons of African descent could think, read and write works of literature. For a few brief years, Phillis was a author known to both the colonies and Europe, think Oprah, think Alice Walker, think Maya Angelou of her day. Sadly, with Revolution at hand, her literary career stumbled with Phillis and her only surviving child dying much too young.But that was not the end of Phillis Wheatley. Her surviving works have endured and been subjected to levels of awe and loathing in the centuries since her death. In some camps, Phillis Wheatley is a mother of the slave narrative, in others a sell-out, an Aunt Thomasina making her then masters happy. Author Henry Louis Gates, Jr does a wonderful job of looking at the literary life of a much loved and much reviled author. The only jarring point? The covers of this fine volume are much too close together, THE TRIALS OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY was a quick read and I found myself sad to have the book end.

Mostly a summary of the literary career of Phillis Wheatley, a teenaged slave, born in Africa and later bought by John and Susanna Wheatley of Boston for less than ten pounds, who would unknowingly kickstart the African American literary tradition with her "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," published in 1773. Described by Gates as "the Oprah Winfrey of her time," Wheatley defied the conventional racist wisdom of the time by proving that people of African descent could write poetry and produce European notions of Art. Gates does a good job of tracing the trajectory of her work throughout the years following her sad demise (her poetry would grant her manumission, but she would die free, poor and alone at the age of thirty). Gates' main critique in the book is of the unfair criticism he feels critics of the Black Power Movement gave her, by questioning her "authenticity" and accusing her of being "too white." He ties this in to Thomas Jefferson's criticisms of Wheatley some two-hundred years earlier, who dismissed her poetry as bad enough to prove that Africans indeed were inferior to Anglos in the arena of "reason." Citing a recent poll suggesting that "acting white" was aligned with "speaking standard English, getting straight A's, or even visiting the Smithsonian," Gates uses a bizarre logic to make his ultimate point: "In reviving the ideology of 'authenticity'--especially in a Hip Hop world where too many of our children think it's easier to become Michael Jordan than Vernon Jordan--we have ourselves reforged the manacles of an earlier, admittedly racist era" (p. 84-5). Whether one views Jefferson's or even Amiri Baraka's criticisms of Wheatley's poetry as remotely similar, Gates' little book does a tidy little job of setting up for the reader the historical processes and miracles that allowed for Wheatley to publish the poems (--good or bad--it's up to you to decide!) that initiated the African American literary tradition.