http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p12.html
Following Terry, the work of Phillis Wheatley, believed to be the first slave to publish a volume of poetry, is fundamental. Wheatley was kidnapped by slave traders in the area today known as Senegal and Gambia , and was purchased by John Wheatley of Boston as a gift for his wife. She was treated well by the Wheatley's and exhibited a keen intellect and an appetite for learning and writing. After the publication of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in London in 1773, she gained an extensive international following. Her poetry, like the spirituals, reflects a deep commitment to her faith, and her first published poem, "On Being Brought From Africa to America " expresses her hope that her people might all be turned toward Christianity:
Some view our race with scornful eye,
'Their color is a diabolic die.'
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refined, and join th' angelic train" (5-8).
Although Wheatley generally disregards issues of race, like her forebears, she, too refutes the institution of slavery in her poem, "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North America ":
Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood;
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat;
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labor in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd;
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway? (20-31)
Critics have denigrated Wheatley's writing for its imitation of the neoclassical writers of her day (Alexander Pope was her poetic model, and much of her work is clearly derivative), but there is no denying that hers was a prodigious talent that set the standard for African American poetry. Using her "song" as subtle resistance, as was common with the spirituals, Wheatley also carries forward the griot tradition, recalling and shaping history, while reaching into her Sasa for poetic material.