Phillis Wheatley

On this day in 1767: Phillis Wheatley’s first published poem appeared in print

Phillis Wheatley, a 13-year-old enslaved African girl, had the first of her many poems published on December 21, 1767.  "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin" was printed in the Rhode Island Newport Mercury.

History does not know the real name of the girl kidnapped from Senegal (it is believed) when she was 7 or 8 years old. Phillis is the name of the slave ship that brought her to Boston. Wheatley is the name of the man who purchased her for his wife. The Wheatleys taught Phillis to read and write, unusual for slave holders. They recognized her talents enough to provide her with additional learning and encouraged her writing. Mrs. Wheatley, especially, championed Phillis Wheatley’s poetry, if not her freedom. Wheatley earned widespread recognition with An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine…George Whitefield. Although recognized for her poetry and finally manumitted in 1773 after the death of Mr. Wheatley and toward the end of Mrs. Wheatley’s life, Phillis Wheatley died in poverty. In addition to her poetry, she is remembered for her opposition to slavery on the grounds—and as living proof—that Africans were not an inferior race.

Here is the poem, which she wrote after hearing an account to of the two men’s harrowing adventure.

On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin

by Phillis Wheatley

Did Fear and Danger so perplex your Mind,
As made you fearful of the Whistling Wind?
Was it not Boreas knit his angry Brow
Against you? or did Consideration bow?
To lend you Aid, did not his Winds combine?
To stop your passage with a churlish Line,
Did haughty Eolus with Contempt look down
With Aspect windy, and a study'd Frown?
Regard them not; — the Great Supreme, the Wise,
Intends for something hidden from our Eyes.
Suppose the groundless Gulph had snatch'd away
Hussey and Coffin to the raging Sea;
Where wou'd they go? where wou'd be their Abode?
With the supreme and independent God,
Or made their Beds down in the Shades below,
Where neither Pleasure nor Content can flow.
To Heaven their Souls with eager Raptures soar,
Enjoy the Bliss of him they wou'd adore.
Had the soft gliding Streams of Grace been near,
Some favourite Hope their fainting hearts to cheer,
Doubtless the Fear of Danger far had fled:
No more repeated Victory crown their Heads.
  Had I the Tongue of a Seraphim, how would I exalt thy Praise; thy Name as Incense to the Heavens should fly, and the Remembrance of thy Goodness to the shoreless Ocean of Beatitude! — Then should the Earth glow with seraphick Ardour.
 Blest Soul, which sees the Day while Light doth shine,
To guide his Steps to trace the Mark divine.

Jane Edna Hunter

Born this day in 1882: Jane Edna Hunter (1882–1971), social worker, lawyer, and nurse who founded the Phillis Wheatley Association of Cleveland

Jane Edna Hunter was born Jane Edna Harris to a sharecropping family in South Carolina. She began working at the age of 10 and entered school, illiterate, at the age of 15. She graduated in 1900 with an eighth grade graduation. She continued working a variety of jobs, mostly service jobs. She became Jane Edna Hunter upon her brief marriage to Edward Hunter.

Hunter returned to school, graduating from Virginia’s Hampton Institute Training School for Nurses in 1905 as a trained nurse. She began working a series of nursing jobs. Later, she graduated from the law school at Baldwin-Wallace College and passed the Ohio bar exam in 1925.

As working woman, Hunter discovered the need for safe, affordable housing for single, working, African American woman. To that end, she founded the Working Girls Association in 1911, which later that same year changed its name to the Phillis Wheatley Association. Staring with only “a nickel and a prayer,” she raised funds to establish a settlement house. The association became a model for several similar organizations throughout the nation. It was sometimes criticized by other African Americans, who felt it only encouraged segregation (for example, circumventing the need for the YWCA to integrate). 

The Phillis Wheatley house, like other settlement houses, provided more than housing. It also promoted employment and social development training. Hunter served as the association’s executive secretary until 1948. She was also an active member of the National Association of Colored Women. After Hunter retired she established the Phillis Wheatley Foundation, which provides scholarships for African American high school graduates. The foundation later established a scholarship in her name. She was the recipient of several honorary degrees, and Ohion’s Cuyahoga County’s Department of Children and Family Services named its main building after her.

As the need for group housing diminished, the organization has shifted its focus to other community needs, including recreational and cultural programs, daycare, and housing for low-income elderly.

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