Journal for Wheatley

Gregory Alcala
English 48A
Lankford
Journal for Wheatley

Quote:
"Twas not long since I left my native shore/The lands of errors, and Egyptian gloom." -Phillis Wheatley, To the University of Cambridge, in New England
Summary:
I wonder if those words really came from her. I doesn't sound like she misses her native country. Calling it the land of errors because it is considered behind by the Western world and according to the Norton Anthology her homeland was not close to Egypt. However, I can see if she was given a full Christian upbringing since childhood. She wrote and published her writings before other great African America writers and before the woman's or African American movements. She had to of known her main audience would have been whites with a very slim few of African who were in the same fortune as her to learn to read. People read the bible so much back then, the only real link to Africa to the bible was Egyptian lands. The gloom of Egypt was the curses brought down by God. One of them being the curse of darkness. Wheatley was brought to America when she was still a child, but I still think of other African America writers and wonder if any of them would have linked the curses from God to their native homeland.

Quote:
"Come, dear Phillis, be advisíd, To drink Samaria's flood/There nothing is that shall suffice, But Christ's redeeming blood" -Jupiter Hammon, An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley
Summary:
Hammon, also a African American poet, is writing about Wheatley in what looks like a positive light. To drink from a flood in Samaria, a region in Africa, might been the rich waters that helped the crops same as the other flooding river, the Nile. When Hammon says to drink Christ’s redeeming blood, I do think he talking of the holy communion. The drinking of the flood waters is nothing when compared to the Christian act of taking holy communion. Hammon thought of Wheatley as his muse, which is poetic within itself because she was able to do so much for herself by writing and while still in a male dominated society. Wheatley would only made it easier for a man to follow in her literary footsteps.

Overall Summary:
Wheatley break many different walls down. She was the first African American woman to publish a book that was financed by a group or women. Wheatley also was the first African American woman to made her living from her writing. Plus she did this before the either the women or African American movements really were in discussion for America. I had not heard of Wheatley before this and I wish I had because she accomplished so many firsts during her time. Not even white women were getting an education, however she was learning to read and write English and learning to read Latin. Wheatley was able to do so much within her lifetime, yet I have only heard of her in my college education. While googling her name, Google suggests what I might be looking for. Phillis Wheatley was the first recommendation and Phyllis Diller was the second. It looks like Wheatley is more searched for.