Complete Writings

"I admire Phillis Wheatley’s poetry and her personal journey. Enslaved at a young age in West Africa, she came to Boston and was sold, at roughly seven, to a family headed by John Wheatley. Wheatley’s wife, Susanna, recognized she was remarkably smart and so encouraged her studies. By the time Phillis was an adolescent, she was writing remarkable poetry. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter To read Wheatley is to understand the world she lived in. She wrote many odes, the great poetic genre of the period. She also wrote topical poems. Although young, she was an astute observer. In her poetry and in her person, Wheatley adopted New England ideals. Although born in Africa and enslaved as a child, she used her talent and education to write her way to fame and freedom. She speaks as the voice of New England about “our liberties” being preserved, in a poem addressed to the Earl of Dartmouth. Yes and no. The abolitionist movement did take root in New England starting in the late 1820s, but it had roots in other places as well. So, ‘export’ is not the word I would use. The City-State of Boston tells the story of how radical Bostonians, starting with David Walker in 1829, pushed for immediate abolition. But it also explains that many Bostonians’ fortunes were tied to the cotton economy. It’s certainly the case that Boston became a magnet for escaped slaves and free blacks. Abolition is a complicated, transatlantic thing which Boston played a significant part in, but Boston didn’t export abolitionism the way Virginia exported tobacco."