Phillis' Relationship With the Wheatley Family
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2020-12-11T14:20:22-08:00
Phillis’ relationship with the Wheatley family differed from the relationships that many slaves had with the families that employed them. John Wheatley was relatively kind, and advocated for Phillis’ ability to study and write. His wife Susannah and their daughter Mary “recognized the remarkable talents of their young slave and began to treat her as something closer to an adoptive daughter than a servant" (Peterson 303). Mark Peterson, author of the article “Cutting Off the Circulation: Phillis Wheatley and Boston’s Revolutionary Crisis,” states that “She was purchased not as a productive laborer—a small, sickly, seven-year-old child was more of an expense than an asset—but as something exotic, a luxury good rather than a practical investment, meant to enhance a rich family’s domestic life in their Boston mansion. Under the tutelage of Susannah Wheatley and her daughter, Mary, Phillis became a literary prodigy. By her late teens, she was an accomplished and published poet with admirers on both sides of the Atlantic" ( Peterson 295).
However, it is crucial to remember that just because the Wheatley’s were kinder than a majority of slave owners, it does not undermine the fact that Phillis was still a slave, and any of the anguish she may have suffered as a result. Robin S. Doak, author of Phillis Wheatley: Slave and Poet, reminds us of this, stating "Despite her special privileges, she was still a slave. The Wheatley's controlled her life and her future. They were gentle and kind, but kindness was not a substitute for freedom. Phillis had little hope for life as a free woman" (Peterson 30).
