Phillis Wheatley's Genius in Bondage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Others at the Anxious Bench know far more about the subject than I do, but I enjoyed reading Jonathan Yeager\u2019s Books & Culture review of Vincent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Phillis Wheatley's Genius in Bondage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Others at the Anxious Bench know far more about the subject than I do, but I enjoyed reading Jonathan Yeager\u2019s Books & Culture review of Vincent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Anxious Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-13T05:13:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/files\/2012\/09\/472px-Phillis_Wheatley_frontispiece-236x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"johnturner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"johnturner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/\",\"name\":\"Phillis Wheatley's Genius in Bondage\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-13T05:13:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-13T05:13:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/976685779e3256328b03af5f2c9d69ca\"},\"description\":\"Others at the Anxious Bench know far more about the subject than I do, but I enjoyed reading Jonathan Yeager\u2019s Books & Culture review of Vincent\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Phillis Wheatley’s Genius in Bondage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/\",\"name\":\"Anxious Bench\",\"description\":\"The Relevance of Religious History for Today\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/976685779e3256328b03af5f2c9d69ca\",\"name\":\"johnturner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f393838d8f979f64dbee7fd63fd8bfdc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f393838d8f979f64dbee7fd63fd8bfdc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"johnturner\"},\"description\":\"In the fall of 2012, I will become Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University. 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{"id":1461,"date":"2012-09-13T01:13:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T05:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2012-09-13T01:13:52","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T05:13:52","slug":"phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2012\/09\/phillis-wheatleys-genius-in-bondage\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillis Wheatley’s Genius in Bondage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Others at the Anxious Bench<\/em> know far more about the subject than I do, but I enjoyed reading Jonathan Yeager\u2019s Books & Culture review<\/a><\/em> of Vincent Caretta\u2019s new biography of Phillis Wheatley (A Genius in Bondage<\/em> reads the subtitle).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always wanted to know more about Wheatley, especially after becoming somewhat familiar with Atlantic World evangelicals of African descent such as Olaudah Equiano and Rebecca Protten. $\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I found this passage in Yeager\u2019s review worthy of thought:<\/p>\n

The wealthy evangelical merchant John Wheatley and his wife, Susanna, bought the young girl, naming her Phillis after the slave ship that carried her across the Atlantic \u2026 While recognizing that the Wheatleys\u2019 kindness toward Phillis was rare at that time, Carretta bypasses any thorough analysis of the role that faith played within the family. Instead, benevolence toward Phillis was meant \u201cto publicize their status, piety, and charity.\u201d \u2026 It is certainly possible that the Wheatleys paraded Phillis about as a way of highlighting their wealth and status, but another scenario, and one that is not seriously considered by Carretta, is that John and Susanna Wheatley genuinely cared for Phillis and made sure that she was given ample free time to develop her talent as a writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Caretta questions the common reading of \u201cOn being brought from Africa to America\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2026critics confuse accommodation with appropriation. Like many authors of African descent who follow her, Wheatley repeatedly appropriates the values of Christianity to judge and find wanting hypocritical self-styled Christians of European descent. Theologically, Wheatley perceives her capture in Africa as leading to a fortunate fall that allows her formerly \u201cbenighted soul\u201d to rise to embrace Christianity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here are the concluding lines of that poem:\u00a0 \u201cSome view our sable race with scornful eye, \u201cTheir colour is a diabolic dye\u201d \/ Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin\u2019d, and join th\u2019 angelic train.\u201d Those lines seem to reference the alleged curse of Cain. While \u201cblack as Cain\u201d hints at that view, Wheatley very much rejects any notion of a curse. Blackness is not a \u201cdiabolic dye.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the success of Wheatley\u2019s first (and only) published book enabled a trip to London and contributed to her manumission, Wheatley never convinced publishers to issue a second book of her poetry.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"