Introduction
The illustration that Phillis Wheatley portrays in history is an African-American woman who wrote poetry. Her life goes more into depths that what is perceived, however. Phillis Wheatley uses her poetry as a unique way to get out the truth. Through poems such as On Being Brought From Africa to America and the poem about Lee, she made statements about was what going on at that time; a revolution. Phillis Wheatley was known as a revolutionary mother, for she gave hope to slaves, ease to whites, and was an influence to America. She was not known for conflict or trying to start an argument, but she more known for personalizing her thoughts onto a piece of paper, read by all of America. Her ideas were used as an influence during the revolutionary war. Phillis Wheatley was not an ordinary slave, but she was accepted into society my the majority. The family who raised her, taught her how to read and write, and she slowly turned into a woman of the revolution.
Biography and Accomplishments
Phillis Wheatley was born in about 1753, in Gambia, Africa. She was kidnapped when she was seven or eight years old, in 1761, and brought to America. John Wheatley bought her at the Boston docks for his wife, Savanna, who was in need of a young servant. The Wheatley's gave her the name Phillis, and also let their 18-year old daughter teach her the English language. Their daughter, Mary, realized very quickly that Phillis was an entertaining mimic and could learn to read very fast. Phillis was given lessons from the Bible, which were meant to be quite difficult, but Phillis learned so quickly that the family didn't know what to do with it. Only after a few short months, this girl had already learned so much and was even found to know ...
... middle of paper ...
...h the Matthew Newkirk Memorial Fund]
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_phillis_wheatley.htm
[Jone Johnson Lewis]
Engle, Paul: Women in the American Revolution; 1976: Follett Publishing Company, Chicago
Berkin, Carol: Revolutionary Mothers; 2005: Alfred A. Knoff, New York
Appendix
On Being Brought from AFRICA to AMERICA
Phyllis Wheatley
'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refined, and join th' angelic train.
[http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=620]
Andrew Griscom, Betsy Ross’s great-grandfather, was a successful Quaker carpenter whom emigrated from England to New Jersey. {1} He was also of firm Quaker belief, and he was encouraged to move to Philadelphia to become an early participant in William Penn's "Holy Experiment”. {1}The “Holy Experiment” was a colony for the Quakers to practice their beliefs. {2} This colony became a place for Quakers to live without persecution and a center of religious freedom in the colonies.{2} Griscom set up his business in town and taught his son to be a carpenter. {2} Both Griscom's son and grandson became respected carpenters as well. {1}They both have their names inscribed on a wall at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. {1}It seems that Andrew passed his skills on to his grandson as well, Samuel Griscom. {2} Samuel helped build the bell tower at the Pennsylvania State House or Independence Hall. {1}Without radios, televisions, or internet to provide the news, bells like this one was very important. {2}The bells announce births, deaths, and brought people together to hear important news. {2}Samuel married Rebecca James who was a member of a wealthy Quaker merchant family. {1} Rebeca and Samuel Griscom had a big family. Elizabeth Griscom was their eighth child out of seventeen and fourth-generation American. Elizabeth was born on January 1, of 1752 in west Jersey Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia, and went by Betsy. {2}
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
A little background on the author of “Liberty and Peace” Mrs. Phillis Wheatley she was brought to the America in the 1700’s from west Africa for slavery. However, she was only seven years old and end up in Boston instead of the south other slaves. It was there where her literary talents were discovered by her slave masters the Wheatley’s. She was taught to read and write like the other children within the Wheatley’s household. Her first published poem was at the age of thirteen told the story of rescue at sea and was published without any problems. However even though she was literate she was still far away from her homeland. She expressed her feels through her later poems, which many were not published because of her being an African
Rosemarie Zagarri argues in, A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution, that Mercy Otis is an extraordinary woman who deserves recognition just like Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, and any male figure receives. Through the most important parts of Revolutionary America, Zagarri can convey just how important Mercy really is. Expanding from her knowledge of politics to her ability to write, Mercy creates magnificent poems and plays. She is able to stretch away from the idea of women not belonging in politics and not having the same intelligence of men.
Readers unfamiliar with Phillis Wheatley may wonder of her background and who she was in particular to be able to gain rights to be mentioned in early American literature. Wheatley was born in 1753 and was captured by Africans, and sold to an American family known as the Wheatley’s. She quickly became a member of the Wheatley family, living in the home, and being tutored on reading and writing.
Wheatley was born in West Africa around 1750, and was captured when she was 7. John Wheatley purchased Phillis for his wife, Susanna; together they taught Phillis how to read and write, and as early as 12, Phillis was writing poetry and her first poem had been published. Wheatley’s poems implicitly advocated for racial equality, while condemning slavery. Her work received some negative feedback from political figureheads, such as Thomas Jefferson. White America classified a human as having the ability to read, write, and reason; therefore, leaving no room for the uneducated Africans, seeing Africans as nonhuman. Jefferson claimed Wheatley’s work was not literature because the moment he admitted Wheatley’s work was indeed literature, he would have had to admit she was a human being. The way Phillis Wheatley handled the adversity she faced is admirable. Wheatley definitely impacted American history, and “owes her place in history to advocates of inequality” (Young 1999
Patience Wright, formerly known as Patience Lovell, was born in 1725, in Long Island New Jersey to a “well-to-do-Quaker family” (MacLean, 1). At that time in America, women were not allowed to own property or make any kind of salary; it was custom for women to carry out their duties to marry and raising a family. Fortunately for Wright, the Quakers “believed women should have rights and education equal to men’s”, and being raised in a Quaker family gave her the independent and outgoing personality she is becomes known for later in her life. At the age of four, Wright’s family moved to Bordentown, New Jersey (Magliaro, 1). As a child Patience always had a special interest in art. Her sister and she would use wet dough to sculpt figurines and use grains or plant extracts to make paint (MacLean, 1).
Phillis Wheatley was an African-born slave in the last quarter of the eighteenth-century in New England. She was born in West Africa and brought to America on the slave ship Phillis. She was, however, much more than chattel-she was a poet. Phillis was the first African American to have a book published. In a time when women were not expected to be able to read or write, and when teaching an African American to be literate was frowned upon, Phillis Wheatley became educated in Latin and English literature. The education of Phillis Wheatley was, for the most part, for the intent of training "a servant and would-be companion for domestic utility," in which they undoubtedly succeeded. However, they "got an intellectual adornment" who, with her knowledge of the poems of Alexander Pope, the "Puritanical whiteness of her thoughts," and ability to write poems, soon became a celebrity among Boston?s social elite (Richmond 18,19).
Gladys Smith was a small town girl that became famous as a young child. As a young child Gladys Smith no longer Gladys Smith, she was renamed by a director by the name of David Belasco. He changed her name from Gladys Smith to Mary Pickford from then on everyone has known her as Mary Pickford.
Patricia Hill Collins focuses on marginalized groups in her theory of intersectionality. However, even individuals not subject to systems of oppression, such as Skylar in Good Will Hunting, can be understood using Hill Collins’ ideas of controlling images versus self-definition. Throughout the movie, Skylar is seen in a particular way by other characters, but her own view of herself is more complex and she resists being seen solely through the controlling images she is associated with. Skylar’s resistance supports Hill Collin’s call to use dialogue and focus on concrete lived experience as ways to understand social actors.
Mary learned to read at an early age, probably from her grandmother also. Soon she was using this new-found ability to teach a favorite servant to read. It was illegal in South Carolina to teach a slave to read or write, but Mary was a favored grandchild and her grandmother was proud of her ability. In 1831, however, her grandmother died. Mary was twelve years old when the entire family moved to Mississippi, where they owned some other plantations. Most of the family fell ill, however, and within a year the family had returned to the South Carolina plantation to resume their lives there. Shortly after their return, the family was visited by Mr. Chesnut, owner of a nearby plantation, and his son James. James was twenty-one and had just graduated from Princeton. James and Mary began a courtship that ended with James proposing to Mary when she was fifteen years old. Her mother and father d...
woman in 19th century America, but fame did not come without the many struggles and
eight years old. Susan met her future spouse David Smith, at the age of nine-
The 19th century was a time of great social change in the United States as reflected by the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement. Two very influential women leaders were Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth. Grimke was born a Southern, upper class white woman. She moved to the North as a young woman, grew involved in abolitionism and women’s rights, and became known for her writing, particularly “Letters to Catherine Beecher”. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree; she escaped to freedom, changed her name, and became an active speaker on behalf of both the abolition and women’s rights movements. Truth’s most famous speech is “Ain’t I a Woman?”. While both Grimke and Truth use a personal, conversational tone to communicate their ideas, Grimke relies primarily on logical arguments and Truth makes a more emotional appeal through the use of literary strategies and speech.
In “On Being Brought From Africa To America” Phillis Wheatley speaks directly from her experience of coming to America, and how she became very religious on her arrival, so she uses her religious beliefs to explain how lucky she was to be in America and how she made a lot of achievements. Phillis Wheatley was a young black female poet, who started discovering her love for writing when she came to America, although it was illegal to educate black people she found a way to teach herself to read and write, even though a lot of people of her race were told that they weren’t good enough to deserve to be Christians and also to enjoy the advantage of being a citizen in America, Wheatley overcame these immense obstacles and she was so grateful for the chance to be a part of the Christian word and also to hear the word of Christianity, she was also very happy that she was brought to America where she has the opportunity to read and write. “Phillis” wasn’t her real name but her master named her that because the slave ship she boarded to come to America was named Phillis.