I was wrong. I had a few lines about Phillis Wheatley Peters in the one-take video I recorded one afternoon a month ago and that went inexplicably viral. I had intended to do an episode on Phillis in this series, but I hadn't read up yet and I repeated the highlights, the stuff everyone with an interest in history knows about her. My mistake.
The last few years have seen a spate of scholarship on Phillis Wheatley Peters and have transformed the academic understanding of her life. Dr. Cornelia Dayton published ground-shifting research in 2021, which led to a reedition of Phillis's first modern standalone biography by Vincent Carretta in 2023, closely followed by another by David Walstreicher. Not every online source – starting with Phillis's Wikipedia page – has caught up. The general idea that Freedom 250's AI portraits of Phillis and other revolutionary women and men are ridiculously inaccurate and offensive stands. To picture her wearing pearl earrings and fine silk, at a time we know she was probably forced to sell her books and writing table, is absurd. Details of her life, however, need updating. That's what this week's episode with Vin Carretta I hope achieves.
First, we call her Phillis Wheatley Peters. Phillis was the name of the slave ship on which she was transported to America. Wheatley was the name of her enslavers, a couple who thought it clever to use the slave trade as, essentially, an international adoption agency and then brand the child forever with that part of her story in both her first and last names. Peters was the name her husband – himself formerly enslaved – had chosen for himself. She adopted it and went by Phillis Peters after 1778. It's as close as she got to a freedom name. We are forced to concatenate her names because posterity remembers Wheatley.
Did Phillis die in abject poverty? Most probably, though it may not have looked like the Dickens novel. Did her children die? We know of at least one infant who did, there may have been others as well as miscarriages. We just don't know. Was her husband imprisoned for debt and unable to support her at the end? Yes, as was fairly common in the early 19th century, but circumstances matter greatly.
John Peters was ruined as a result of a relentless campaign of harassment by neighbours and associates who seem to have been resentful at the presence in their town of a successful and educated Black couple who did not show the "appropriate" level of humility and deference. Long story short – but it's really worth reading the long story – John Peters' former enslaver John Wilkins died without male heirs and his widow deeded John Peters the estate on the condition he manage the farm and take care of her and her disabled daughter to their deaths. Suddenly, Peters was returning to the town where he had been a slave, now a reasonably well-off landowner married to an internationally celebrated poet. (Remember, we're in the early 1780s. The Massachusetts constitution declared "all men are born free and equal" in 1780, Elizabeth Freeman won her freedom in court in 1781 and slavery was abolished in the commonwealth in 1783. We're right in the middle of all that.) But the relationship with the widow Wilkins and others in town – including, plot twist, another formerly enslaved woman, Dinah Cubber – quickly disintegrated; endless litigation ensued, tainted with complex interpersonal conflicts, class and racial politics; and the Peters's rural dream turned into their downfall. Phillis, who had long suffered from asthma, died of sudden respiratory illness in 1784, after several hard years when she had to sell off belongings and was unable to fund the publication of a second book.
What remains is Phillis Wheatley Peters's legacy as the first published African American poet, one of the first truly American international celebrities really, acknowledged by everyone from George Washington to Voltaire, who placed US literature on the map in the late 18th century just as the country was making its debut on the world stage. Vin Carretta told me he thought of her as the first poet laureate of the United States, a title that did not exist yet but that she unofficially claimed with one of her final poems, published shortly before her death in 1784, Liberty and Peace. I leave you with it.
Liberty and Peace
Lo! Freedom comes. Th’ prescient Muse foretold,
All Eyes th’ accomplish’d Prophecy behold:
Her Port describ’d, “She moves divinely fair,
Olive and Laurel bind her golden Hair.”
She, the bright Progeny of Heaven, descends,
And every Grace her sovereign Step attends;
For now kind Heaven, indulgent to our Prayer,
In smiling Peace resolves the Din of War.
Fix’d in Columbia her illustrious Line,
And bids in thee her future Councils shine.
To every Realm her Portals open’d wide,
Receives from each the full commercial Tide.
Each Art and Science now with rising Charms,
Th’ expanding Heart with Emulation warms.
E’en great Britannia sees with dread Surprize,
And from the dazzling Splendor turns her Eyes!
Britain, whose Navies swept th’ Atlantic o’er,
And Thunder sent to every distant Shore:
E’en thou, in Manners cruel as thou art,
The Sword resign’d, resume the friendly Part!
For Galia’s Power espous’d Columbia’s Cause,
And new-born Rome shall give Britannia Law,
Nor unremember’d in the grateful Strain,
Shall princely Louis’ friendly Deeds remain;
The generous Prince th’ impending Vengeance eye’s,
Sees the fierce Wrong, and to the rescue flies.
Perish that Thirst of boundless Power, that drew
On Albion’s Head the Curse to Tyrants due.
But thou appeas’d submit to Heaven’s decree,
That bids this Realm of Freedom rival thee!
Now sheathe the Sword that bade the Brave atone
With guiltless Blood for Madness not their own.
Sent from th’ Enjoyment of their native Shore
Ill-fated — never to behold her more!
From every Kingdom on Europa’s Coast
Throng’d various Troops, their Glory, Strength and Boast.
With heart-felt pity fair Hibernia saw
Columbia menac’d by the Tyrant’s Law:
On hostile Fields fraternal Arms engage,
And mutual Deaths, all dealt with mutual Rage;
The Muse’s Ear hears mother Earth deplore
Her ample Surface smoak with kindred Gore:
The hostile Field destroys the social Ties,
And ever-lasting Slumber seals their Eyes.
Columbia mourns, the haughty Foes deride,
Her Treasures plunder’d, and her Towns destroy’d:
Witness how Charlestown’s curling Smoaks arise,
In sable Columns to the clouded Skies!
The ample Dome, high-wrought with curious Toil,
In one sad Hour the savage Troops despoil.
Descending Peace the Power of War confounds;
From every Tongue coelestial Peace resounds:
As from the East th’ illustrious King of Day,
With rising Radiance drives the Shades away,
So Freedom comes array’d with Charms divine,
And in her Train Commerce and Plenty shine.
Britannia owns her Independent Reign,
Hibernia, Scotia, and the Realms of Spain;
And great Germania’s ample Coast admires
The generous Spirit that Columbia fires.
Auspicious Heaven shall fill with fav’ring Gales,
Where e’er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails:
To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display,
And Heavenly Freedom spread her golden Ray
Read from and about Phillis
Between her own writing and the plethora of interesting recent scholarship about her, Phillis deserves her own shelf in the bookshop. Here it is.
Sadly for UK readers, there is a lot less available but you'll find Vin Carretta's biography of Phillis at Waterstones.
I want to acknowledge and thank Prof. Honorée Jeffers, who pointed me to this more recent scholarship in the comments on the video (and caught flak for it that was totally unwarranted. Let's be kind by default, folks, life's better for all that way.) Dr Jeffers wrote The Age of Phillis, imagining Phillis's life in poems, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2020.
I also recommend reading Cornelia Dayton's article in The New England Quarterly about Phillis and John's (until now) lost years in Middleton, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, you'll need access through a university or library because academic publishing is a scam (a topic for another day), but if you do, you'll find it's superb research superbly written. It's not often I'll recommend an academic essay because most of them put me to sleep, but this is one I can vouch for. (If you really want to access it but can't, email me back.)
