ipl-logo

Phillis Wheatley Analysis

1795 Words8 Pages

Phillis Wheatley was a black slave who was brought to Boston in 1761. While in her Christian home, Wheatley’s talent and specialty was recognized by her owners. Although she still had duties around the house as a slave, she was treated like a part of the family. John and Susanna Wheatley, her owners, gave her an unprecedented education and by the time she was 12, she could read and write English, Greek, and Latin. With this knowledge and education, she was quickly reading difficult passages out of the Bible. This emersion in the Christian faith is reflected through Wheatley's poems that were mostly written in the elegiac poetry style, focusing on moral and religious subjects. Some critics have even argued Wheatley praises slavery because it brought her to America and therefore to Christianity.
William J. Scheick’s “Phillis Wheatley’s Appropriation of Isaiah” analyses Wheatley’s poem …show more content…

Scheick says that “Wheatley initially seems to defer to scriptural authority, then transforms this legitimation into a form of artistic self-empowerment, and finally appropriates this biblical authority through an interpreting ministerial voice” (Scheick, 137). This summary is correct because at the start of the poem, Wheatley does not start “preaching” to the whites. She appreciatively says that it was by the grace of God that she was brought out Africa to come to Boston. She is appreciative of this because she did not have the experience that many laves did because of her small and weak physical stature. So when she was brought to America, she went to home in the north instead of the fields in the South. After saying thank you, and therefore having a happy audience, she proceeds to give credit to her Savior for bringing her out of the “Pagan land”. Then, towards the ending the poem, she switches her voice to ministerial by telling the Christians that the Negros are equal to them in the eyes of the

Show More
Related
1561 Words | 7 Pages

There were a number of both positive and negative changes at the time John Marshall lived. Born in 1755 in Germantown, John Marshall’s was greatly influenced by a series of events. One significant influence on his later life as a Supreme Court judge was the time he spent as a Revolutionary soldier. As a soldier, Marshall highly admired General George Washington and witnessed some of the greatest changes in American history. Some of the positive changes include the making of the Constitution of the United States.

Read More
171 Words | 1 Pages

In some of the works that Phillis Wheatley created she does not directly criticize slavery in her poetry she only accepts that it exists. In her poem On Being Brought from Africa to America she acknowledges that racism exist in America she states “Some view our sable race with scornful eye,” (Para 5) this reflects how people viewed slaves as being subhuman. As Wheatley continues to the next line stating “Their colour is a diabolic die." (Para 6) using quotation marks this shows an elaboration on her point that there are negative societal views on black people. I feel the reason she wrote this way is in the eighteenth century people did not view Africans as human beings they were seen as being creatures.

Read More
459 Words | 2 Pages

Stewart was part of Boston’s African American middle class and worked as a servant in a clergyman’s home. Before serving as a nurse in Washington, DC during the Civil War, Stewart delivered four speeches, including the lecture at Franklin Hall in 1832. Stewart began her speech with a rhetorical question, “Why sit ye here and die?”, and replies by expressing how the whites are so in control of everything that they determine our life span. Additionally, Stewart asserts references from the Bible to appeal to the similarly religious audience. These references showcase how these prejudice treatments are not appreciated in the Bible.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

In 1773, there were slaves all over colonial America working in plantations, and cleaning their masters houses. It wasn’t common for a slave to be writing poetry with their owners consent. Phyllis Wheatley’s success as the first African American published poet was what inspired generations to tell her story. It was her intellectual mind and point of view that made her different from others, both black and white. Phyllis’s story broke the barrier for all African American writers, and proved that no matter the gender or race, all human beings are capable of having an intelligent state of mind.

Read More
1157 Words | 5 Pages

Douglass is relentless when attacking the church, he states, “The American Church is Guilty” (Douglass 1039). This has a slightly taste of irony, because here Douglass, a colored man, is calling out the most “sacred” body of people. It almost as if he was the master and they were the slave now. Next, the main theme expressed by

Read More
616 Words | 3 Pages

Wheatley learned how to read the bible from a young age, and her religion greatly affected her poetry; “Phillis Wheatley’s poetic subjects were derived from the Bible, from celebrated public events and from the religion she had absorbed from her pious owners” (McMichael 298). She was very particular when she was

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

You take Yong Goodman Brown, a man living in an area and time where it is deeply rooted in their Christian beliefs. Then you have Phillis Wheatley who is an African slave who is writing to privileged white men in Cambridge. Both are planted firmly in their Christian faith and the difference is one of them is a slave, and the other one is a free man with a wife and family. Yet, after reading Young Goodman Brown, it seems that only one of them

Read More
2545 Words | 11 Pages

North Carolina and South Carolina residents have been comparing themselves since the two colonies split in 1729. In recent years, the two states have begun striving to increase investment in renewable energy sources, specifically solar energy, and comparing the two states demonstrates a dichotomy of policy. The two states have taken drastically different paths in hopes of increasing investment in solar energy and to date the states have seen vastly different results. Each states’ policy has pros and cons with portions of the policy working and portions failing. This paper attempts to explain the differences in the policies of the two states, compare the results and ultimately suggest opportunities legislators can utilize to improve public

Read More
2034 Words | 9 Pages

This was partly because she was a black woman writing about very high profile events and issues of the time period. She presents the ideas of the freedom of woman and then many of the same concepts as Hughes did in his writing. She contemplated racial identity and the cultural differences but came to the same conclusion as Hughes did in saying that different cultural activates did not make them different from other races. In her short story “How it Feels to be Colored Me” there are many passages that portray her work as a whole and capture the voice of the black community “I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mothers side was not an Indian Chief”(Hurston 2124). The very first lines in this piece by her definitely resonate her opinionated voice.

Read More
1049 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout his narrative, Douglass’s descriptions of the white slaveholders expose the Christian hypocrisy found in the American slave system. Douglass first does so by exposing how the lesson taught by Christians to help those in need is contradicted by the experiences Douglass has especially with hunger. Douglass reflects on these experiences when he states that for the “first time during a space of more than seven years” feeling the effects of the “painful gnawing’s of hunger…” (54). This event shows the Christians’ lessons of selflessness and kindness is hypocritical as they treat their fellow humans as subhuman. The Christians at the time rely on scripture to make a case for slavery in America.

Read More
2649 Words | 11 Pages

I. Introductory Paragraph and Thesis Statement Phillis Wheatley has changed the world of the literature and poetry for the better with her groundbreaking advancements for women and African Americans alike, despite the many challenges she faced. By being a voice for those who can not speak for themselves, Phillis Wheatley has given life to a new era of literature for all to create and enjoy. Without Wheatley’s ingenious writing based off of her grueling and sorrowful life, many poets and writers of today’s culture may not exist. Despite all of the odds stacked against her, Phillis Wheatley prevailed and made a difference in the world that would shape the world of writing and poetry for the better. II.

Read More
589 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, there are many characters that can be identified as an antagonist throughout the story. However, Hilly Holbrook is the most significant of them all. With her attitude towards colored people, her controlling personality, and the methods she uses in order to have her way, it is obvious that Ms. Hilly is a definite villain of this novel. In the novel, many white families, including Ms. Hilly’s, had hired African American maids to help them around the house.

Read More
1464 Words | 6 Pages

For example, Sarah Grimke, a middle-class white woman abolitionist, wrote, “A similar condition of moral pollution and utter disregard of a pure and virtuous reputation…That such a state of society should exist in a Christian nation…” In Grimke’s work, one can note her outrage at the clashing ideals of Christian Slave holders, and noted on the moral effects of the two conflicting beliefs. Northern abolitionists aimed to gain more sympathy by reminding their readers of Christian beliefs and how they clash with the practice of slavery. William Lloyd Garrison even made a remark in his newspaper article asking for a pardon from God for the sin and inequality happening in the country. Many Americans were of Christian faith and by aligning slavery as a sin and a dishonor to God, abolitionist were able to gain more support and outrage for the Northern Abolitionist

Read More
1225 Words | 5 Pages

In Phillis Wheatley’s To S.M., a Young African Painter, the reader can easily assume that Wheatley is expressing her opinion on the beauty of Scipio Moorhead’s paintings. The poem seems to discuss Wheatley’s appreciation for another African-American artist like herself. However, after looking closely at word choice, visual imagery, and deviation from the rhyme scheme one can see that there is much more going on in this poem. Wheatley addresses not only her thoughts on S.M.’s works, but also religion, immortality, race, and freedom. Looking at this poem more in-depth is important because it will allow the reader to better understand the poem’s meaning.

Read More

More about Phillis Wheatley Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document