Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-10
African Poetess Was First to Call George
Washington First in Peace.

carpet. shivering with the cold. IF you
had asked, What is your name, little
girl?" she would not have understood
you. and, even II she had understood
and answered your question, the little
foreigners name would have sounded
very queer to you.
She had been stolen from her native
land, packed like a sardine In q slave
ship with many others of her country
men, had suffered the horrors and tor
lures Of what was called "the middle
white men into this country TO be
sold as slave.
A LADY who wanted to train o young
woman servant to take the place
Of an old one who was growing too
feeble to work. went to the slave market
in Boston to see what she could find
In that line. The pathetic face Of the
shivering child appealed to this woman
so strongly that she bought her. In
spite of the fact that her little body
appeared very fral.
Sixteen months from that time the
young slave girl was reading the most
difficult passages in the Bible. Six
years from the day she was sold she
had become so proficient in speaking
and writing the English language that
she had written q poem TO the Uni
versity Of Cambridge, Q years from
the day she had been bought as a
slave she had published poem on the
death Of distinguished clergyman and
IL years after entering Mrs. Wheatley's
service her volume OF poems was pub
lished in London.
Phyllis was very fortunate in having
Mrs Wheatley as her mistress. Let us
pause long enough to give a vote of
thanks to that lady. The law did not
force her to be merciful TO the little
slave and certainly nobody expected
her TO give the girl chance to de-
velop her mind.
In her new home Phyllis became the
special servant of Mrs. Wheatley's
twins, Nathaniel and Mary, who we're
10 years older than their slave. One day
Mary saw the little African trying to
form letters on the wall with a piece
of chalk. She doubtless thought it
would be great fun to teach her. She
tried. and the progress made by her
black pupil was the sensation Of that
lis race and the whole world owe to
Mary Wheatley Very soon the girl be-
gan to write poems "for her own amuse-
ment," the preface Of her book states.
"She had no intention ever to have
published them" said her master, NOR
would they now have made their ap-
pearance but at the importantly of
many Of her best friends"
Both the extent and variety of the
slave girls knowledge are amazing. In
her poems her references to science,
literature. mythology. religion and cur
rent events prove that she must have
had leisure to read as we'll as to write
and that in her case certainly reading
had made a full mind" She studied
Latin and read Ovid with ease and
pleasure.
HER interest in the pursuit of knowl-
~ - edge is shown by her poem ITO
the University of Cambridge. in Boston,"
which was written only six years after
she had landed barbarian from Africa,
when she was about IS or IL years
old. In the opening lines she declares
that IAN intrinsic ardor prompts" her
to write and the muses. promise to as
sist my pen," and thus addresses her
self to the young men attending the
university:
Students, to you it's given to scan
the nelghtS
Above, to traverse the ethereal space
And mark the systems OF revolving
worlds.
Then she reminds them of the great
sacrifice made by Jesus Christ to re-
deem the world, refers to the "nlatchless
mercy of God" and closes with the fol-
lowing exhortation:
Improve your privileges while they
stay,
Ye pupils. and each hour redeem
that bears
Or good or bad report Of you to
Heaven.
Let sin, that baleful evil Of the soul.
BY you be Stunned. nor once remit
your guard;
Suppress the deadly serpent in its
egg, n
Ye blooming plknts Of human race
divine; ..---..--.-.---...-----..-