The odyssey of Phillis Wheatley : a poet's journeys through American slavery and independence / David Waldstreicher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waldstreicher, David, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wheatley, Phillis, 1753-1784.

Wheatley, Phillis.

African American women poets--Biography.

African American women poets.

Poets, American--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775--Biography.

Poets, American.

Enslaved persons--United States--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

African American poets--Biography.

African American poets.

Poets, American--Colonial period.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Biography.

Physical Description:

viii, 480 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023

Summary:

"A paradigm-shattering biography of Phillis Wheatley, whose poetry was at the heart of the American Revolution"-- Provided by publisher.

"Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published in London, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led one of the most extraordinary American lives. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age. Mastering the Bible, Greek and Latin translations, and the works of Pope and Milton, she composed elegies for local elites, celebrated political events, praised warriors, and used her verse to variously lampoon, question, and assert the injustice of her enslaved condition. 'Can I then but pray / Others may never feel tyrannic sway?' By doing so, she added her voice to a vibrant, multisided conversation about race, slavery, and discontent with British rule; before and after her emancipation, her verses shook up racial etiquette and used familiar forms to create bold new meanings. She demonstrated a complex but crucial fact of the times: that the American Revolution both strengthened and limited Black slavery. In this new biography, the historian David Waldstreicher offers the fullest account to date of Wheatley's life and works, correcting myths, reconstructing intimate friendships, and deepening our understanding of her verse and the revolutionary era. Throughout The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley, he demonstrates the continued vitality and resonance of a woman who wrote, in a founding gesture of American literature, 'Thy Power, O Liberty, makes strong the weak / And (wond'rous instinct) Ethiopians speak'." -- From publisher's description.

Contents:

The Beginnings, The Table, The Tale

The Ship, The Trade, The Wars

The Town, The Families, The Youth

The Teachers

The Preachers

The Monarch, The Poets, The Subjects, The Enslaved

The Nations

The Occupation

The Friends

The Women

The Proposal

The Movement

The Moment

The Campaign

The Metropolis

The Emancipation

The Patrons

The Book

The Readers

The Barbarians

The Americans

The Free

The Ends

The Afterlives.

Machine generated contents note: 1. The Beginnings, The Table, The Tale

2. The Ship, The Trade, The Wars

3. Thetown, The Families, The Youth

4. The Teachers

5. The Preachers

6. The Monarch, The Poets, The Subjects, The Enslaved

7. The Nations

8. The Occupation

9. The Friends

10. The Women

11. The Proposal

12. The Movement

13. The Moment

14. The Campaign

15. The Metropolis

16. The Emancipation

17. The Patrons

18. The Book

19. The Readers

20. The Barbarians

21. The Americans

22. The Free

23. The Ends

24. The Afterlives.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-455) and index.

Local Notes:

HSP Copy: The Pennsylvania Abolition Society Complementary Collection.

HSP Copy: The Balch Ethnic Studies Collection.

Athenaeum copy: Jones Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780809098248

0809098245

OCLC:

1350644783