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The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers
The slave Phillis Wheatley literally wrote her way to freedom when, in 1773, she became the first person of African descent to publish a book of poems in the English language. The toast of London, lauded by Europeans as diverse as Voltaire and Gibbon, Wheatley was for a time the most famous black woman in the West. Though Benjamin Franklin received her and George Washingto...more
Hardcover, 144 pages
Published
April 15th 2003
by Basic Civitas Books
(first published April 2003)
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I have to say that the excerpt I have read for my English class may not be the most interesting and exciting piece of writing but it is important for everyone to know about the past. What I have learned from this piece of writing was that the past was emphasized around race and clearly people were viewed differently according to race and religion. Phillis Wheatley was a talented poet, who despite her hardships of being a clave was taught how to read and write ever since her childhood. According...more
While this excerpt I read for my English class was not exactly entertaining, it wasn’t meant to be. The purpose of “The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black Poet and Encounters with the Founding Fathers,” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was to show an emphasis on race and the clear distinctions people make because of it. They question their beliefs and culture, and argue who the “top dog” is. Phillis Wheatley was born a slave, yet was different from many. She had the privilege to learn ho...more
This was a great little book that has a powerful differentiation of perspective. On one side you can see the perspective of those who admired Wheatley for her work, and the opponents of Wheatley who don’t accredit her work. One can see a theme of equality in this book because in the trials Wheatley tries to make her poetry equal to the poetry of the whites. One thing that I learned from this book is how harsh Thomas Jefferson was. He put down blacks, especially Phillis Wheatley for producing gr...more
In this book, there shows different people’s perspective on different races and how black people were different from white people. According to Hume, he defined “human” by their ability to write and capacity of create imaginative literature. In his word, if Africans could, they considered to be a member of human family. As a result, many black writers tried to produce a great amount of literature to prove their “humanity”. However, Wheatley was a black poet, but people stated that her works didn...more
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This book demonstrated the doubts and criticism expressed towards Phillis Wheatley, as she tried to publish her poetry. At every door step she faced a new obstacle, it which she had to prove her intelligence to men of high status. It was impossible to believe that a lsave is capable of writing poetry. I admire her courage, persisitance, and determination to keep going after each obstacle, even though many seemed quite redundant at times. Phillis Wheatley demonstrated to be an early remodel of wh...more
The trials of Phillis Wheatley is a story which really shows the hate that the american people put on african americans just because they were different form the rest of society and what goes through their heads.But you ask yourself what are some of the literary devices that Henry Louis Gates Jr used to show the true pains of the slaves and how they did not believe that phills Wheatley wrote the poems.What causes this hate in the modern day society and what causes it go away and why cant they be...more
"The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Encounters with the Founding Fathers" by Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a very inspirational book. It describes the life of an African American woman, who decides to become a scholar. Although she was born a slave, she had the opportunity to learn how to read and write. Many people enjoyed reading her poetry, but some didn't. One of these people was Thomas Jefferson. He thought that Phillis based her poetry solely on the Bible and was con...more
Although short, the excerpt read in class from this book portrayed powerful ideas. The criticism of Phillis Wheatley's works proved to be very controversial but also influential on African Americans. Through this reading I learned of the Jeffersonian critique that encouraged the development of Afro-American literature. It was interesting to discover that Wheatley not only received aspersions from whites, but also from blacks who deemed her to be unappreciative of her freedom, and her work to be...more
I found some parts of this compelling, especially the content of Wheatley's poetry. However, Gates' denunciation of The Black Arts Movement of the 60's, coupled with his post racial jargon regarding "black thought vs white thought" really annoyed me. He seemed to praise Thomas Jefferson in spite of his remarks about black intellectual inferiority. I do believe Wheatley was a prodigy but I am saddened by what seemed to be her glorification of the founding fathers who upheld the institution of sla...more
Dec 20, 2010
Eliza Brittni
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
History lovers
Recommended to Eliza Brittni by:
Mr. Carson
"The Trials of Phillis Wheatly" was a very interesting novel to read. Phillis Wheatly was a native African and traveled to America on a ship called “Phillis” in 1761. She was purchased by John Wheatly and his wife was a kind lady who ended up teaching Phillis how to read and write. This was uncommon during this period of time because she was a slave. Teaching slaves how to be literate was a threat to society because they would start to think and question ideas thought to be set in stone by white...more
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley by Henry Louis Gates Jr. argues about the rights of African Americans. Phillis Wheatley, who was educated by her mistress wrote poem when she was young. Thomas Jefferson accuse her of being the imitator in her poems. He said that she just copied the quotes from the bible and put it in her quote. Before, it is said that African Americans lacked in reasoning, imagination and feeling. All they had was strong passion towards white women. This trial was significant beca...more
The trials of Phillis Wheatley was an excellent way to analyze the social classes of african americans. African Americans were so degraded, they were not unexpected to do be capbable of what the whites could do, they were inferior. Phillis Wheatley portrays how the whites had leveled up their mentaltity on africans and their capability. The doubt in the trials of Phillis Wheatley, clearly sum up that idea. It's a great way to relate to history, and see the art and beauty of where the origins of...more
This book made a nice companion to Phillis Wheatley's writings, though in the end I found it unsatisfying. It's an expanded lecture, which I didn't realize going in, and it's just too short to really make a proper impact. I definitely enjoyed the beginning, where Gates discusses the "trial" Wheatley underwent to determine whether she had in fact written her poems - most did not believe she could have due to her race. There is a rather large, in my opinion, digression on Thomas Jefferson and his...more
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley by Henry Louis Gates, Jr was very informational. It was focused primarily on Phillis Wheatley an African born slave brought to America whom then turned out to be a poet. She did not live one could say a harsh life compared to other slaves because learned how to read and write and was not brutalized as many others. However, even though she wrote many poems and was famous for them many people criticized her and did not believe she herself wrote them. Thomas Jefferson...more
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"The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, America's First Black Poet and her Encounters with the Founding Fathers" by Henry Louis Gates, JR. tells the tale of an Negro women and how she is "othered". Phillis Wheatley was a thin, female, African American slave, who was roughly in her teens, and had composed many works of literature like poems. On October 8, 1772, in Boston, Massachusetts, Ms. Wheatley’s trial had begun. The prominence of this trial was to “...verify the authorship of her poems and to ans...more
This book gave information about Phillis Wheatley and about her poetry. I learn so many things about her and about her poetry and especially about the people who were against and were supporting her poetry. Before I didn’t know anything about her, neither I ever heard about her or her poetry. There were many people who disapproved of her poetry and many who admired her poetry. One thing that I really hated was that people were thinking that she didn’t write the poetry, she copied the white peopl...more
If you want to see how slavery was though someone who lived it, read Phillis Wheatley. This book is about a woman who has been enslave for as long as she can remember. In this book you can see what she saw, feel what she felt, and fear what she was so afraid of. In the beginning Wheatley you could say had an easy life, for a slave. All she had to do was attend to the need of her mistress's daughter, whom she loved very much.However, it was when she was sold away did she face the cruelty slavery...more
If you have any interest in where this nation has been or where it is headed, this book is right for you. It is clearly written and thoughtful. It talks about the old American paradox on equality and race. It shows how even though America claims to be a place of liberty they continuosly other blacks.
When Phillis Wheatley was 7 she was brought over to boston in 1761. John Wheatley and his wife taught her how to read and write and is in trial because she has been accused of plagerism. They do not...more
When Phillis Wheatley was 7 she was brought over to boston in 1761. John Wheatley and his wife taught her how to read and write and is in trial because she has been accused of plagerism. They do not...more
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley was about how a black woman wrote poems and the white people didn't believe her. She had to go to court for trials and prove she was the author of the poems because many accused her for copying ideas off the Bible, and writing too intelligently. They thought it couldn't come from a mind of an uneducated black woman. Although many are fond of her poems, there are others who criticized her work for being "too white." Those included many prominent figures such as Thom...more
This speech was really honestly boring. In the beginning it was not bad, it talked about Phillis Wheatley and how she was being tried because of her poetry. There was many people who dissapproved of her poetry and many who admired her poetry. The main argument for the people who disliked it was because they thought she was copying white people, and didn't have the intelligence to write so good, since she was black. They said she was simply imitating white people , since she was taught by white p...more
The Trials of Phillis by Henry Louis Gates JR. is a story focused on othering towards an African female poet. The setting of the Wheatley trials took place in Boston’s Town Hall, the Old Colony House in 1772. The trials of Wheatley were made into such an ordeal because of her skin color. Everybody questioned, “Was a negro capable of producing literature?” (Page 5). John Wheatley, her master, wanted to help her publish her poems but they judged her seeing she was black. At a young age Wheatley w...more
An excellent little book - more of a booklet, really, a libellus the Romans would have said, on Phillis Wheatley, the 18th century black poet who resided briefly in the city of Providence near my home. Her poetry first became of interest to me because of its Classical allusions - she was quite learned in Greek and Roman mythology, and did learn some Latin, I believe. She was examined by a panel to see if she really did write her own poems, thus proving that a black woman could write poetry - and...more
This story takes the reader back to the time of slavery. It led to the recognition of slaves’ abilities to create literary works of their own. This story was about a slave named Phillis Wheatley. Her literary works were judged by some of the brightest minds. They were debating the issue if her works were her own, if they were original. Wheatley’s works started a chain reaction. Many other slaves and former slaves started to write their stories.
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The Trials of Phillis Wheatley by Henry Louis Gates Jr. was something I gained knowledge from. I did not think that white men would ever think that slaves were incapable of literacy. Although blacks were always treated inferior, they are human and they do have brains that they received from God. I thought that white men would at least respect a little bit of that. However, I was astonished to read about the trials of Phillis Wheatley and extremely disappointed in Thomas Jefferson. I always resp...more
Not all books are written for entertainment, and this is one of them. While reading "The Trials of Phillis Wheatley", I focused on historical context and opinions of Henry Louis Gates. This is a book written for learning purposes for people who wish to find out more about Phillis Wheatley. Many people think of Wheatley as a poet yet don't know any controversial facts concerning her. Before anyone reads this book, I would recommend reading a little about Jefferson and his "Notes on the State of V...more
Awesome debates over the authenticity of one of the country's first African, female poets. I was shocked at the last 20 or so pages of Gates' speech, where he chronicles other unexpected "Wheatley haters". So much was at stake at the time of those original 1772 Boston Town House hearings and so much continues to be at stake for Wheatley and her legacy.
A classmate mentioned that he had read this for one his classes and, having found it at Powell's, I scooped it up. Very interesting exploration of what was considered true "black literature" then (assuming blacks could even produce literature, which is what Wheatley's trials were all about) vs. what's considered true "black literature" now.
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Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He is well-known as a literary critic, an editor of literature, and a proponent of black literature and black cultural studies.
More about Henry Louis Gates Jr....
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Dec 04, 2010 08:35am