American Literature / Unit 5 AML 0416 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Phillis Wheatley: The Poet and the Proof
Captions available
The idea
Enslaved in Africa at seven or eight and bought by the Wheatleys of Boston, Phillis Wheatley read the Bible, Latin classics and English poetry, learning most from Pope's couplets and Milton. Her first poem appeared in seventeen sixty-seven, and Boston men examined her, doubting she wrote her own work.
In practice
A poet made to prove authorship.
Where people slip
The examination was the condition of publication.
Your place on the trail
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