20/10/2021
“She was called Phillis, because that was the name of the ship that brought her, and Wheatley, which was the name of the merchant who bought her. She was born in Senegal. In Boston, the slave traders put her up for sale:
“She’s seven years old! She will be a good mare!”
She was felt, naked, by many hands.
At thirteen, she was already writing poems in a language that was not her own. No one believed that she was the author. At the age of twenty, Phillis was questioned by a court of eighteen enlightened men in robes and wigs.
She had to recite texts from Virgil and Milton and some messages from the Bible, and she also had to swear that the poems she had written were not plagiarized. From a chair, she gave her long examination, until the court accepted her: she was a woman, she was black, she was a slave, and she was a poet.”
Phillis Wheatley, was the first African-American writer to publish a book in the United States.
This picture is not a picture of Phillis Wheatley but a portrait of Sarah Forbes:
At the age of five, Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies, born into a Royal, West African dynasty, was taken to England and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift” from one royal family to another. A unique and admired figure in history, she spent her life between the British royal household and her homeland in Africa.
Let’s remember both extraordinary women. I’ve advised the National Museum of Women’s history to change this photo of Sarah Forbes for a described painting of Phillis Wheatley. Thank you all.
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