Henry Louis Gates, Jr

The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, America’s FirstBlack Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

A Book Review by Mary Anne Jusko

March 2009

How misleading a title at first - The Trials of Phillis Wheatley - . What haveI chosen to study? As I read on and on, when was I actually going to get to“the trial” that so interested me in the first place? I chose this book to readbecause of the imagination and curiosity stirred in me by a parent readingaloud to my 5th grade class on NAAPID day. I can still hear her voice, readingpage by page with perfect pacing and inflection, sharing each wonderfulacrylic painting/collage as she wove the story for us. The children’s bookPhillis’s Big Test by Catherine Clinton and illustrated by Sean Quallscame alive for us all that day. Poor Phillis, just 7 years old, shivering, coveredwith a scrap of carpet, bought by the Wheatley family in 1761 in Boston.

Just a few years later she walks the streets of Boston to meet 18 whitemen of prominence, to defend her authorship of amazing poetry. Just a fewyears after that she is walking with dignitaries and royalty in Europe, thefirst black woman published, the most popular black person of her time.This experience generated so many questions in my mind. Who werethose men that were asked to gather by the Wheatley’s to validate this littlegirl? Did she really write those poems herself, or were the Wheatley twinsthat took her education upon themselves the real authors? And maybePhyllis just had a good memory and was able to recite someone else’swork- photographic memory. Why did she and her baby die in poverty afterbeing the most well-known black person on the planet at that time, and whydid her husband leave her to die? Where is her missing second volume ofpoems? Why is she buried in an unmarked grave? As someone sharedwith Gates, some think Wheatley’s poems could have been a code. Wasshe so talented and intelligent to write the poems in code? I had so manyquestions that I was hoping this book would help me answer, but Gates’work stirred up even more questions in me as I continued to read. As always,history opens a Pandora’s box, and it’s a never ending quest to findout more about characters in time that interest you, that touch your life, thatclarify for a moment a time in history that can help make sense of howthings are now, and why.

As I read on, the book seemed to be more about Thomas Jefferson thanWheatley herself. Was this to be a tangent focus on Jefferson and how he,as Gates claims, was the “mid-wife” to African American literature? Jeffersondid not support Wheatley, saying that her poems were “mindless repetitionand imitation”. (October 2003’s Choice Reviews). Because of Jefferson’sstance on his belief of blacks as being mentally inferior, Gates proceeds through the book to show that both Jefferson and Wheatley havehad a great impact on African American Literature. The November 2003Black Issues Book Review acknowledges that many authors have exploredWheatley’s seemingly “ambivalent poetry” and “Jefferson’s conclusions”,but “...what Gates does that is remarkably new is the conflation of Wheatleyand Jefferson, and how they, in their differences, helped to mold the blackliterary tradition.” Black literature was born in part out of the need to repudiateJefferson’s claims. I then realized that this book was so much morethan Wheatley herself.

Little did I know but quickly did I find out that this book was perfectly titled,after all, and that that fateful meeting to defend herself (and the entire blackrace according to some) in Boston was just the first of many trials sincethen, to this very day, that Phillis would have to endure. Gates explores thenotion that some view Wheatley as a race traitor. Was she too black? Wasshe too white? What is too white? What did that mean to Phillis, and whatdoes it mean today?“For Wheatley’s critics, her sacrifices, her courage, her humiliations, her trials wouldnever be enough.” ... “Today the question has become “Who is black enough?” The criticsof the Black Arts Movement (1960’s) and after were convening their own interrogationsquad, and they were a rather more hostile group than met that day in 1772. Wecan almost imagine Wheatley being frog-marched through another hall in the 1960s or 70s, surrounded by dashiki-clad, flowering figures of “the Revolution”:“What is ogun’s relation to Esu?” “Who are the sixteen principal deities in the Yorubapantheon of Gods?” ”Santeria derived from which African culture?” And finally: “Whereyou gonna be when the revolution comes, sista?” (pg.83)Gates feels that this phenomenon continues even through today, in the Hip-Hop generation, where Gates describes a poll of inner city youth which revealedthat “acting white” meant: “speaking standard English, gettingstraight A’s, or even visiting the Smithsonian!” (pg.84)

To the heart of the matter, and what I most gleaned from this book, is themessage Gates clearly conveys in the concluding pages. He states that“cultures can no more be owned than people can.” He uses a quote fromW.E.B. Du Bois to capture the spirit of the message:

I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and armwith Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls.From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the traceryof the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come allgraciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil.”(pg. 85-86)

According to Gates, Jefferson and Wheatley should both be embraced byus for what they were and for what they gave to us. Gates has reaffirmedfor me the importance of viewing all works in history, both past and present,in this vein.

It turns out this is a book based on Gates’ 2002 Jefferson Lecture in Humanitiesat the Libary of Congress. It is well-researched, with a comprehensivebibliography. This slim copy will inspire any reader interested in AfricanAmerican literature, Phillis Wheatley, Boston, Thomas Jefferson, racialidentity, and/or race relations. It is well-supported with research over alifetime of study by a well-qualified author. Gates’ authority and credibilityis undeniable. He is director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies andW.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities at HarvardUniversity. Gatesaptly traces through time the works of many scholars and authors in thisbook. I enjoyed the ebb and flow of the different perspectives he quotes,from the fellows who think of Wheatley as too white and dismiss her, tothose that see her as too black and dismiss her, and the different time periodsin which these ideas prevailed. Such an interesting, stimulating journey,with a plethora of citations that are clearly multi-perspective and all inclusive,makes for a stimulating, thought-provoking read.

As in everything I read and spend my time on, I am always striving to incorporatethings into my classroom - how would this benefit my students?So surprisingly, this book went from a curiosity of mine about a young slavein Boston who wrote poetry, to a lesson learned on cultural and racial identityand how to “read” others in history. Using Phillis, her life and poetry toopen further discussion and study with my students will be most beneficialin our striving to promote cultural, racial, and intellectual understanding inour world.

Resources

Children’s Books:

American Women of Achievement: Phillis Wheatley, Poet, by Merle Richmond

(1988)

Phillis’s Big Test, by Catherine Clinton, illustrated by Sean Qualls (2008)

A Voice of Her Own, the Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet by Kathryn

Lasky, illustrated by Paul Lee (2003)

Adult Books:

The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley, edited by John C. Shields (1988)

Phillis Wheatley, Complete Writings, edited by Vincent Carretta (2001)

TheTrials of Phillis Wheatley, American’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters

with the Founding Fathers, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2003)