eng 272: phillis wheatley

frontispiece to Wheatley's poetry collection, Poems on Various Subjects, by Scipio Moorhead, courtesy of wikipedia, and in the public domain

Phillis Wheatley, according to acclaimed scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., "launched two traditions at once--the black American literary tradition and the black women's literary tradition. It is extraordinary that not just one but both of these traditions were founded simultaneously by a black woman--certainly an event unique in the history of literature--it is also ironic that this most important fact of common, coterminous literary origin seems to have escaped most scholars" (qtd. in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter 7th edition 420).

Wheatley's legacy is huge--she started two important, intersecting traditions. She also challenged the idea that women's writing was strictly confined to domestic concerns.

Check out this PBS website on Wheatley and her writings.