What was Henry Gates's conclusions about Phillis Wheatley?

The girl who came to be known as Phillis Wheatley came to town on July 11, 1761, on board a schooner, named the Phillis. The ship had recently returned from gathering slaves in Senegal, Sierra Leone, and the Isles de Los, off the coast of Guinea. read more

Not an expert in north american history, but this lecture can be very useful: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Lecture Long story short, there is no shadow of a doubt for Gates that Phillis was the first african-american poet and writer, and that much of the criticism of their contemporary, including her trial, was strongly based in racism rather than any other cultural prejudice. read more

Wheatley’s Essay Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about in his paper how Phillis Wheatley was a doubted writer and if she was even actually the author of all her poems and stories. I for one agree with what Gates is saying about Wheatley. read more

If Phillis Wheatley was the Mother of African American literature, there's a sense in which Thomas Jefferson can be thought of as its midwife. Indeed, we could analyze, had we the time this evening, scores of commentators who sought to refute Jefferson's arguments in Query XIV, from the 1780s through the twentieth century. read more

Long story short, there is no shadow of a doubt for Gates that Phillis was the first african-american poet and writer, and that much of the criticism of their contemporary, including her trial, was strongly based in racism rather than any other cultural prejudice. read more

1 HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR, A CRITIC AT LARGE: PHILLIS WHEATLEY ON TRIAL (2003) in New England and Britain since she was fourteen. One of her In 1772, a slave girl had to prove she was a poet. read more