Phillis Wheatley and her Education
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Education Wheatley received compared to other women and slaves
plain
2020-12-11T20:27:31-08:00
Phillis Wheatley had the odds stacked against her upon her arrival into slavery in the colonies, however was greeted by a family who elected to educated her at home. This was contrary to the ways of the society in the colonies at the time. The society dictated a lack of education for women and even educated women could not hold any wealth. This describes how women were treated at the time as shown in Mary Wollstonecraft's Thoughts on the Education of Daughters "If what I have written should be read by parents, who are now going on in thoughtless extravagance, and anxious only that their daughters may be genteelly educated" (Wollstonecraft 77).
Women faced extreme societal pressure to stay within their roles of being the care takers of the family and were often looked down upon for pursuing freedom and independence. We see the idea of being educated and contributing to society as being out of the norms even though the thoughts of many women pushed them to want to create a better society. We see this in Judith Sargent Murray's essay to the Massachusetts Magazine" while we are pursuing the needle, or the superintendency of the family, I repeat, that our minds are at full liberty for reflection; that imagination may exert itself in full vigor; and that if a just foundation is early laid, our ideas will then be worthy of rational beings" (Murray 133).
Phillis Wheatley's home education was not uncommon at the time but was uncommon for being a slave at the time of her education. Women across the colonies and early America faced some of the same challenges as Wheatley yet did not have the added struggle of being a slave. Slaves were generally bought for labor and were not treated as humans, as seen in Reverend James' essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies "WE have men among us, who dare boast of their giving orders to their watchmen, not to bring home any flave that they find of breaking canes, but, as they call it, to hide them that is to kill and bury them" (James 63).
