Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) is the first
book of poetry published by an African American author. Written while
Wheatley was a slave in Boston, the collection was published in England.
Regarded for her mastery of classical poetic form, Phillis Wheatley
earned praise from Voltaire and George Washington. Poems on Various
Subjects, Religious and Moral has long been the subject of scholarly
work on the history of African American literature, with some critics
arguing that Wheatley's poems proved detrimental to the struggle of
enslaved African Americans. Whether Wheatley made excuses for slavery
or, as some have argued, included subtle critiques of the institution in
her writing, her talent and importance to the history of African
American literature remain undisputed.
Despite her status as a slave, Phillis Wheatley seems to have viewed
herself as a blessed individual, a woman for whom life itself was a sign
of God's grace, and in whom talent arose in the form of a foreign
language. Many of her poems--elegies, odes, and monologues--are aimed at
others. Whether in mourning, in praise, or in warning, Wheatley
frequently offers her own voice to university students, royalty, God,
the muses, and deceased infants. When she does offer glimpses of
herself, for instance, in her poem "On Being Brought from Africa to
America," she provides a complex perspective on her status as a slave:
"'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, / Taught my benighted soul
to understand / That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too." While
her words may seem strange to our modern view of the American
institution of slavery, they provide an important historical lens onto
the adoption of Christianity by African American slaves, who developed a
faith grounded in resistance, hope, and redemption.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious
and Moral is a classic of African American literature reimagined for
modern readers.
