The lives of poets are often tragic. Not only because of the sadness, happiness or melancholy that their verses evoke, but because poetry becomes, for them, a way of being on Earth and directing their actions without limits.
Robert Diaz. Peninsula 360 Press.
Phillis Wheatley - from 1753 to 1784 - well represents this strange destiny, uncommon for people who live within a certain normality, and tragic destiny for someone who, perhaps without knowing it, was already embodying a struggle, and without intending to do so, would foreshadow more than a struggle: an ideal of equality.
Born in Senegal, she was trapped and taken to the United States at the age of seven and sold by slavers to the merchants John and Susanna Wheatley, a surname she would adopt along with the name of the schooner that crossed the Atlantic: Phillips.
Settled with the servants of this Boston family, they soon realized the enormous talents of the young girl, whom they had bought in the slave market, and educated her. They taught her - along with the couple's twins, Nathaniel and Mary - theology, philosophy, astronomy and literature, in addition to studying English and classical languages.
Influenced by her biblical readings -she was initiated in Christianity-, the poems of John Milton and the philosophy of Alexander Pope, little Phillips showed her poetic talents in the gatherings that the family held at that time in Massachusetts. In the face of a racist society, whose production was based on slavery, the young slave girl's declamation must have been an emotional shock, given that in that society, people of color were considered to have no soul and were, in general, intellectually inferior.
In this context, the poet was interrogated by the prominent people of the town of Massachusetts, who questioned her to corroborate that the writings belonged to the slave. Even the governor of the state was present at this interrogation.
Phillips was the third woman to publish in the United States. Her book Poems Various Subjects was published in 1773, just two years before the outbreak of the Civil War in North America. Although his work had only been valued as a historical document, which, beyond having literary value in itself, was seen as something of a document that had opened a new path for a social sector vilified in the American Union, it was also seen as a document that had opened a new path for a social sector that had been vilified in the American Union.
Just as George Washington saluted and celebrated his letters, so did Voltaire. He had the opportunity to go to England, where he also met with important people of the time - Franklin, Earl Darthmouth and the Lord Mayor of London - who were able to express their admiration for him, as well as receiving a copy of "The Great Writings".The ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"The work of the greatest exponent of Spanish literature, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, and one of the ".Paradise Lost".by John Milton.
Despite becoming a famous writer and publishing her works, she fell into a deep depression after the death of the Wheatley twins, who died unexpectedly. Philis Wheatley bought his freedom and married a freedman who could not lift her out of the poverty in which she lived. They had 3 children who later died.
Her husband abandoned her and Phillis died at the age of 31 in poverty and her work fell into oblivion.
