她的早年生活

Born in West Africa about 1753, Wheatley was named for the ship, the 菲利斯, that brought her to Boston on 11 July 1761, and the Wheatley family who enslaved her. John Wheatley was a prominent Boston merchant with a wholesale business, 房地产, 仓库, 码头费, 纵帆船 伦敦包. Susannah Wheatley was an ardent Christian and admirer of George Whitefield. A frail child between seven and eight years old, 菲利斯 was chosen to be a domestic servant and companion to Mrs. 惠特利晚年的画像. Although she spoke no English upon her arrival in this country, she soon proved to be a precocious learner, and was tutored by the Wheatleys' daughter Mary in English, 拉丁, 历史, 地理位置, 宗教, 尤其是圣经. Her education was that of a young woman in an elite Boston family but, 作为一个被奴役的女人, she was denied access to freedoms available to white members of the Wheatley family. She was particularly well-acquainted with the classics, 《利记APP官网手机版》, 当代作品, especially those of Alexander Pope, and these influences are readily apparent in her writing.

名声与不幸

Wheatley's debut volume of poetry was first proposed in 1772, but this early venture was unsuccessful, and eventually she turned to an English publisher for her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. In May of 1773 she accompanied the Wheatley family's son Nathaniel to England, where plans for the publication had begun, but she was called home by the illness of Susannah Wheatley, and departed before the book appeared in September. While she met many notables in London, she was unable to see 亨廷顿伯爵夫人, who was away in Wales for the summer. 在她回到波士顿后不久, 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 was freed by her enslaver, possibly under pressure from her English admirers. Susannah Wheatley died in March of 1774. 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 drew up proposals for a second volume of poetry which was never published, probably due to wartime shortages in Boston. 她嫁给了约翰·彼得斯, 一个住在波士顿的自由黑人, 这对夫妇有三个孩子, two of whom may have died in infancy. By 1784 Wheatley was living in a boardinghouse, and in December of that year both she and her third child passed away. 他们的埋葬地点不详.

菲利斯·惠特利的书桌
红木折叠牌桌

菲利斯·惠特利的诗

• 菲利斯·惠特利的诗, "An Address to the Atheist" and "An Address to the Deist," 1767
• 菲利斯·惠特利的诗, "Atheism," July 1769
• "An Elegiac Poem On the Death of that celebrated Divine, and eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, 牧师和博学先生. 乔治·怀特菲尔德(1771)
• 菲利斯·惠特利的诗, "A Poem of the Death of Charles Eliot ...1772年9月1日
• Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (title page and frontispiece of 1773 edition)
• 菲利斯·惠特利的诗, "To His Honor the Lieutenant Governor on the death of his Lady,1773年3月24日
• An Elegy, To Miss Mary Moorhead, On the Death of her Father, The Rev. Mr. 约翰学习, 1773
• An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of the Great Divine, the Reverend and the Learned Dr. 塞缪尔·库珀, 1784
• Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (title page and front matter of 1802 edition)
• "To the Right and Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth ...“从 Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1802年版)
• Earliest surviving verse by 菲丽丝·惠特蕾, copied into Jeremy Belknap's diary

Letters by and about 菲丽丝·惠特蕾

• Letter (copy) from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Lord Dartmouth, 10 October 1772
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Obour Tanner, 19 July 1772
• Letter from John Andrews to William Barrell, 24 February 1773 and response from William Barrell to John Andrews, 1773年3月22日
• S的来信. Huntingdon [Selina Hastings, Countess Huntingdon] to Susannah Wheatley, 13 May 1773
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to David Wooster, 18 October 1773
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Obour Tanner, 30 October 1773
• Letter from John Andrews to William Barrell, 28 January 1774
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Obour Tanner, 21 March 1774
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Obour Tanner, 6 May 1774
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Obour Tanner, 29 May 1778
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Mary Wooster, 15 July 1778
• Letter from 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 to Obour Tanner, 10 May 1779

Next essay: 革命性的参与 >