The 1775 Battle for Quebec - The Importance of Benedict Arnold

In September 1775, a small handpicked group of men boarded a makeshift flotilla embarking from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having successfully bypassed Royal Navy scout ships this ramshackle fleet made for the wild and desolate Coast of Maine. Their objective was to disembark and march through the thick North Woods to the Citadel of Quebec, which stood like a sentinel at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Their intended route had never been taken which proved to have dire consequences as distances and conditions were critically misunderstood. Conducting such an operation took considerable skill, determination, and sheer force of will to which the leader of this expedition did in fact possess. His name was Benedict Arnold.

Brian Hughes explains.

A portrait of Benedict Arnold. By Thomas Hart.

Prelude

Following the initial outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord an obscure Captain of Connecticut Militia arrived outside of Boston Massachusetts to join the coalescing colonial forces turning up in their masses to contest British rule. Benedict Arnold had been a successful sea-going merchant and Apothecary owner from the prosperous city of New Haven, Connecticut. It didn’t take long for Arnold to draw the conclusion that the Colonials found themselves in a difficult situation. Having successfully contained British forces within Boston, this ragtag Army of Patriots lacked the necessary artillery required to dislodge them. Arnold proposed capturing the guns from the dilapidated Fort Ticonderoga, located at the strategic nexus of Lake George and Lake Champlain. Arnold was granted a commission as a Colonel and would lead the enterprise in tandem (though begrudgingly) with the leader of the infamous Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen. The enterprise turned out to be successful, having secured more than enough weapons and materials for the besiegers who were then able to displace their foes.

Having now made a name for himself, Arnold displayed impressive military acumen by deducing that a major British counterattack was inevitable and measures would need to be taken in order to avert such a predicament. Traditionally, armies operating in the North American theater of war utilized the strategic Champlain-Hudson Corridor, a nearly continuous series of waterways from Quebec to New York City. With the absence of numerous roads this aquatic highway was the most efficient and logical method for transporting men and material throughout this vital region. Both the French and British armies made consistent use of these lakes and rivers throughout the French and Indian war as had various indigenous peoples for time immemorial. When the British returned, they would arrive in the north and attack from here.

Knowing full well that Quebec was to be the logical focal point of the British counterblow the now reinvigorated Patriot forces were in some haste to prevent this incursion from happening. Philip Schuyler, an influential New York Patroon and newly made Major General opted to lead a detachment from Fort Ticonderoga and capture Montreal. This plan would soon be dashed as Schuyler became immobilized by gout. Command then passed to General Richard Montgomery, a former British Army Officer and transplant to North America.

March

Benedict Arnold simultaneously proposed an additional invasion route. Arnold offered to lead a small column of men from Massachusetts to Maine (then still part of Massachusetts) and lead his file overland traversing multiple portages, to surprise and ultimately capture Quebec before the British could respond to the taking of Montreal. The route proposed by Arnold was untried, having been only partially scouted by military surveyors; the most noteworthy map had been drawn up by a British Military Engineer by the name of John Montressor in 1761. It proved to be hopelessly flawed however, misjudging distances and elevations to a considerable degree.

To this day Maine remains one of the most wild and remote states on the Atlantic Seaboard. Men would have to trek through dense forests, ford flooded rivers and treacherous currents, brave extreme temperatures, all while sustaining themselves on meager rations. All of this was compounded with the lateness of the season as the brutal northern winter approached abruptly. In early September Arnold assembled an ad hoc flotilla consisting of 1,100 men and proceeded to lead his vessels up the New England Coast successfully evading Royal Navy vessels in the process. The troops disembarked and began making their way up the Kennebec River but the various columns of troops quickly became separated.

The conditions were appalling. Men were constantly soaked between fording waterways and the relentless autumn rains. The Bateaux and watercraft utilized were not capable of handling the necessary logistical requirements, often floundering and breaking, losing vital provisions in the process. Arnold often traveled ahead of the main bodies of troops sending any essential supplies in which he could requisition from the inhabitants. Food became increasingly scarce. The men had to scrounge for whatever sustenance the country could offer, with some eventually succumbing to hunger while others consumed bits of leather from their shoes and clothing. With supreme endurance coupled with Arnolds exemplary leadership, this small force endured these tribulations to reach their destination in time to rendezvous with Montgomery. But their already small numbers had been significantly depleted, losing about half of their men in the process.

Attack

By now the Anglo-Canadians were aware of Montgomery’s successful capture of Montreal on the 13th November and were coming to realize their vulnerable situation as Arnolds men stormed out of the North Woods and stood defiantly across the river from the city. The British Commander and acting Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Guy Carleton proved more than capable in dealing with the tenuousness of the situation. Mobilizing all the personnel he could muster, including several sailors aboard the few ships still in the St. Lawrence, the opposing forces would be roughly equal in size, a factor which benefited the defenders as the American troops possessed only scant siege material.

With Montgomery arriving with his body on the 2nd of December, Arnold proceeded to meet and confer with the Major General as they eventually drew up a plan of attack. With both commanders leading a contingent, Arnold and Montgomery intended to launch a two pronged assault on the upper and lower towns. Making use of whatever artillery and siege equipment they had in their possession, they would swiftly overrun the garrison whom they believed possessed low morale and defended decrepit posts. The Americans would be forced to act quickly as another factor to which they had to consider was the soon to expire enlistments of the various militia troops comprising the bulk of their already small force. It was imperative that the assault occur before the end of the year, when the commanders would be obliged to send these troops home.

On the 31st of December a blinding snowstorm took hold. The timing of such a blizzard served as yet another impediment to the American besiegers. With no other choice but to attack the assault was carried out as intended. Both Arnold and Montgomery characteristically led from the front braving a storm of bullets that seemed to be as numerous as the falling snowflakes. It was then that a fatal blow afflicted the Americans as General Montgomery urged his column ahead from the vanguard; he was instantly struck down by a cannon blast killing himself and several accompanying officers instantly. As confusion struck the attackers the next officer in charge wavered under the strain of combat and ordered a hasty withdrawal isolating Arnold’s troops to press on alone. While this was happening, Arnold was struck in the leg by a musket ball causing agonizing pain. Arnold tried his best to lead his men on but the wound was too much as he reluctantly withdrew to the rear urging his men on the entire time. Famed woodsmen and rifle corps leader Daniel Morgan then took command as he aggressively spearheaded a renewed assault leading his men and fighting ferociously. As the American assault made its way toward the agreed upon rallying point with Montgomery the disorientation of the weather and the resistance of the defenders became too much. As Morgan continued to push forward through the unfamiliar city a reformed British counterattack stopped the invaders in their tracks inflicting several casualties in the process with Morgan and hundreds of others being taken prisoner.

Aftermath

The attack had failed. The Anglo-Canadians continued their dogged resistance even as the Americans withdrew, maintaining a tenacious siege once again led by Arnold. But between the severity of the Canadian winter and their well supplied adversaries the Americans would eventually have to withdraw yet again this time to Montreal before reinforcements did eventually arrive months later and placated them from Quebec for good. Arnold's march through Maine remains one of the most impressive feats of daring fortitude in American history. Some would even refer to him as America’s Hannibal, after the Carthaginian General who boldly led his Army over the Alps to attack Rome. Although the Americans failed in their objective to take the City of Quebec, their stamina and perseverance foreshadowed that this conflict would not be resolved quickly after all.

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Who Wrote the Book that led to the American Revolution? The life of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, or Tom Paine was born in 1737 in Britain and dies in 1809 in New York City – in a very different world to that he had been born in. Here, Douglas Reid tells us about Paine’s life, including his roles in the American and French revolutions, as well as his extremely important book – Common Sense.

A late 18th century painting of Thomas Paine. By Matthew Pratt.

John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Paine is the most extraordinary man, this age, or this world, ever produced.” But elsewhere Adams also said: “He was the greatest mischief-maker of the age. “ He made his presence felt as a citizen of three countries and two revolutions. His earthly debut came in 1737 in Thetford, England as the older son of Quaker parents.

Thetford is a mid-sized market town 35 miles north of London. Home for the Paine family was typical for working class folk of the time – a modest thatched cottage on the edge of the village. Young Tom, from his bedroom casement, looked out on a low, windswept landscape that led 200 yards to “Hangman’s Hill”, the scene of many ghastly executions - a harbinger of the time that would come when Tom participated in the French Revolution.

Boys of Tom’s class would typically receive a basic education to 12 years of age. But young Tom was something of a natural scholar. He became self-taught, and he especially liked the works of Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. He was soon expected to work seven years at a trade, and gradually to be formally recognized as a journeyman. Young Tom Paine proved to be a flop at any trade he tried. At last, he was apprenticed as a corset maker under his own family. Tommy Paine – corset maker? No, that could never be. By age 17 young Paine decided he could hear ‘the call of the sirens’ and he left home and headed to sea.

Although young when he began to haunt various shipping berths along the Thames, Tom was not in quest of the thrills of adventure on the high seas. His motivation was financial, plain and simple. He felt his working class education had been inadequate and he was very much a knowledge seeker. While most of his shipmates received their share of a ship’s profits in the morning, only to be in debt by the same afternoon, Tom was paying modest fees to listen to the several lecturers in town. Most of these talks were political in nature and the young man listened carefully.

Political beginnings

Paine developed his political creed through his twenties working as a schoolteacher, a corset maker, and (especially) as an excise taxman. It was during this time that he met Ben Franklin who convinced him that the American Colonies were on the road to separation from King and country. Franklin also advised him that a young man of his sort belonged there and Franklin suggested that Philadelphia should be his destination. Indeed, near the midpoint of 1774 that is where Tom Paine landed.

It was in transit from England to America that Paine completed his extended essay “Pure Reason” which remained the working title until shortly after meeting Doctor Benjamin Rush. Dr. Rush was generally considered the most accomplished medical man in 18th century America. Rush suggested Paine’s essay should be entitled, “Common Sense”.  And possibly the world’s best-known essay was born.

The first of two Continental Congresses met in the Pennsylvania State House during the summer of 1774. They sought mainly to patch up differences with the mother country over excise taxes. The basic views of the delegates at this conference broke down as follows: Approximately one-third were in favour of holding on to Mother England regardless of tax squabbles, one-third sat on the fence, one-third were restless and eager to separate.  “Common Sense” was published and the world would never be the same.

Common Sense

Common Sense burst from the printing press like a bolt of lightning. It ran to seven editions in just a few hours.  A copy of the mercurial missive reached George Washington two days after its debut on the streets of Philadelphia. His take: “I find Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the eyes of many men.” The world has not seen, before or since, a document that mesmerized a people like this brainchild of Tom Paine. But nothing man-made lasts forever. 

Common Sense did not alter the result but it certainly sped things up. After the initial sensation of the tract Paine contributed many speeches to the cause of the Revolution. And it needs to be said that Paine could not hold others in thrall in person the way he could by his written word. His physical appearance alone put many off.

Tom Paine was of average size but he had a face with rosy cheeks. Throughout his life he had a face that burned with a steady, bright red colour. And his eyes released an incandescent black emanation that startled any interlocutor with menace. He was difficult to converse with but he was a genius with the written language. George Washington, for example, got Paine a job as a war correspondent. At the close of a day when negativity reigned following a loss in the field, Paine wrote on a drumhead by the light of a campfire:  “These are the times that try men’s souls.” And now France beckoned.

French Revolution

The firebrand orator soon made his voice known in a new arena – at the famed Tennis Court Oath of 1790. Later still he was to almost lose his head during the Reign of Terror. He had made the mistake of dressing like a Gironde. Lafayette was there to rescue him. Soon after this close shave, Paine fled across the channel to his country of birth but England was not large enough for Paine and George both. And soon he was back stateside, all the while crafting his burning prose. One more thing  - and this time it is of a personal nature.

During his French sojourn the omnipresent and stylish Lafayette presented the Brit turned American with a key - and not just any key. This long black key had been in long-time use at the centre gate of the Bastille.  Subsequently Tom gave the key to George Washington. Shortly after the death of the president, the key to the Bastille became a steady draw for visitors to Mount Vernon.

And I, lingering after hours was allowed to hold the key and feel the weight of it myself!

What do you think of Tom Paine’s importance in the American Revolution? Let us know below.

The Role of the Ulster Scots in the American Revolution in the Carolinas and Virginia

Many Ulster Scots had been in America for generations at the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776. Here, Eric K. Barnes (see more here) describes the background to the Ulster Scots’ role in the American Revolutionary War and what they did during key battles.

The death of British Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain in October 1780. The Ulster Scots played a key role in this battle. Engraving by Charles Henry Jeens and painting originally by Alonzo Chappel.

They came in droves, as if the floodgates had opened on some Scots Irish dam across the sea. With their recent inclusion into the United Kingdom, they sought freedom and land in the British colonies as new British subjects. They disembarked at New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Charleston. They pooled money and families together and set out on the Great Wagon Road in their Conestoga wagons. Different from the planters of the Pee Dee and Coastal regions, they preferred the Piedmont and Mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Men of force and iron were needed in this wild unsettled region that was a buffer between the Native Americans upstate and the gentry of the sandy regions. The wilderness filled up with families of hardy stock, willing to forge a living in the outer territory of the new land.  

When the French and Indian War broke out in 1756, the British treated these stout immigrants with the same disdain that their grandparents and parents had been treated in Scotland and Ireland… Not as equals, but as second-class citizens. All the while they were expected to die for the mother country in preservation of the empire. And they beat back the French and the Indians and forced their capitulation in the name of the Crown, but they did not win their full measure of citizenship.

The Situation by 1776

By 1776 generations of Ulster Scots had lived free and without encumbrances from the Empire’s seat, with it being so far away. Petitions to government for redress against grievances were met with either unrighteous force or general apathy, and never timely. The Empire had stretched beyond the limits of the infrastructure of its government. New Bern, Charleston and Williamsburg were a long way from the Holston river valley or the Yadkin, Broad and Catawba rivers in Virginia and the Carolinas. This distance only added to the bad experiences of the governed concerning the government. 

And grievance upon grievance mounted year after year until an enlightened leadership made a stand against the tyranny. Across the colonies the conversations turned to common rights and common ideas of government…self-government. And though it was based on a natural law known in the breasts of every free man, they were radical in terms of sitting governments in world history. The Ulster Scots had learned to live and flourish on their own in terms of self-government with the moral compass of these natural laws. They, as a people, understood the building blocks of a civil society and recognized when a form of government was not working and had become tyrannical.  These, after-all, were the literate, pious and independent children of the great Scottish Enlightenment.

And all the remonstrations still could have been for naught, and these men and women of the empire would have stayed willingly as faithful subjects, had the King and his generals acted rightfully. Instead, the British came with threats to hang the leaders of the Ulster Scots and lay waste to their towns with fire and sword unless they came and took an oath to this King who was so far away. This same King that bribed the Cherokee to wage war on the settlements from Spartanburg to Nolichucky. The King’s men burned houses, arrested clergy, and confiscated livestock without due payment. British Officers enlisted the local thieves as soldiers and gave them authority to legally ply their formerly illegal trade. Chaos was fomented by the very government that wanted their allegiance.

The Ulster Scots in the American Revolution

So, they came in droves.  Not by the tens or the dozens, but by the hundreds each time they were called in from the fields for service. They chose to live life on their own terms and fight back. 

At Fort Thicketty, in upstate South Carolina, they rode with Colonel Isaac Shelby and their mere presence forced a capitulation without a shot being fired. At Musgrove Mill in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, they combined forces and routed the British with ease. At Kings Mountain, near the North and South Carolina State line, they combined forces again with independent commands, and went on to surround and obliterate one third of the standing British Army in the Carolinas. And at Cowpens they helped the Continental army win the day and decimate still more of Cornwallis’ standing army, thereby starting the chain of events that ended the war and established a new nation.

We can still walk where the intrepid heroes once raised rifle and saber in defense of Liberty. On the trails and roads of old we can stroll under the canopies of the white oak and tulip poplar while our ankles brush by the green ferns along the way. Squirrel and fox, deer and owl, all co-exist on these sacred grounds. The whispers of the wind are all that is left of those awful conflicts, save the man-made markers and graves that dot the anointed landscape. Thankfully we are fortunate to be able to reflect upon these noble deeds of men and women who may have been poor in terms of wealth but were rich in their determination to live free.  

Freedom Reigns!

Protected now from the conquest of civilization’s steady roll, 

where man made monuments stand with the beauty of nature’s soul.  

envision yourself amid the battle cries and smoke while charging into the fray…

but 

you do so under the umbrella of liberty won on that hallowed day. 

Let us know what you think of the article below.

Contributing author, Eric K. Barnes, is a retired Detective Sergeant who enjoys walking in the footsteps of heroes and proclaiming “Freedom” along the way. Find out more here: https://historyman1781.blogspot.com/

References

The Winning of the West, Theodore Roosevelt

Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution in the Carolinas and Georgia, Benson J. Lossing

King’s Mountain and It’s Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It,Lyman C. Draper and Anthony Allaire

History of the Upper Country of S.C., John H. Logan

Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

This article originally appeared on Eric’s site here.

Wisdom Higher Than a Fool Can Reach: The Amazing Life of Poetess Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was an amazing and intriguing woman who became a famous and noteworthy poetess in the latter eighteenth century. And what is most intriguing is that in an age of slavery and discrimination she was black. Here, Christopher Benedict tells her story…

The frontispiece to Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

“Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too,

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

‘Their colour is a diabolical die.’

Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain,

May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train”

This eight line poem was written in 1768 by a young woman of fourteen named Phillis Wheatley. That it, and some 145 others she composed, would alternately subject her to the chaotic complexities of renown and acclaim, the attention of British nobility and America’s Founding Fathers, a tribunal before Boston’s most esteemed magistrates, ministers, and men of letters, not to mention the dismissive scorn of later, more enlightened and less subordinate generations can be best understood by taking the very nature of her blurred identity into consideration.

Her forename was gleaned from Timothy Finch’s schooner the Phillis, which deposited the seven year-old “slender, frail female child” on the Boston wharf at Beach Street on July 11, 1761 after plundering Guinea’s Isles de Los, Sierra Leone, and Senegal (where she is believed to have lived) of its inhabitants for use as human merchandise in America’s slave trade. The assignation of Phillis’ last name would result from her having been purchased, sickly and nearly naked but for a bit of soiled carpet, by Susanna Wheatley “for a trifle” (fewer than £10) to serve as housemaid.

The home, owned by affluent tailor and merchant John Wheatley, was located near Massachusetts’ original State House and within easy earshot, in years soon to come, of the Stamp Act riots and later the Boston Massacre, claiming the life of the Revolution’s first known black martyr Crispus Attucks, which Phillis would document in verse with On the Affray in King Street, on the Evening of the 5th of March, 1770.

Phillis achieved literacy through a combination of Susanna’s encouragement, the tutelage of the Wheatley’s teenaged children Nathaniel and Mary, and Phillis’ own natural desire for extracting sustenance from their English, Latin, Greek, and biblical lessons with an insatiable hunger for knowledge.

Such an impression did Phillis make on John Wheatley that he attested to her phenomenal scholarly advancement, noting that, “she, in sixteen months’ time from her arrival, attained the English language, to which she was an utter stranger before” and “as to her writing, her own curiosity led to it.”   

In 1765, she had already committed to paper her first poem, To the University of Cambridge in New England, and had another, On Messrs Hussey and Coffin, submitted by Susanna to the Newport Mercury, published only two years later, the first by a black woman in America.

Susanna, who by this time had excused Phillis from her previously appointed chores to perfect her chosen craft, would facilitate the collection of her early works into a proposed book containing 28 titles through advertisements that ran through the February to April 1772 editions of the Boston Censor, a Tory newspaper. Owing to the popular misapprehension that a simple slave girl could have been in no way responsible for these supposedly original creations, few offers for the requested 300 subscriptions to fund the project came forth.

On Virtue

“I cease to wonder, and no more attempt

Thine height t’ explore, or fathom thy profound

But, O my soul, sink not into despair,

Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand

Would now embrace thee, hovers o’er thine head”

It is impossible to imagine the emotional state of Phillis, not yet twenty years old, only a little more than half of which had been spent as a kidnapped stranger in a strange land and even fewer familiar with its linguistic peculiarities, being asked to appear before a committee of eighteen of the colony’s most prestigious citizens to verify the authenticity of her writings and, in essence, become a spokesperson (quite literally) of her entire race.

In October 1772, at the urging of John Wheatley, Phillis was interrogated at length (most likely at Boston’s Town Hall) by an assemblage which included among its celebrated quilled pens and powdered wigs, those of Governor Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Oliver, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Joseph Green, and the Reverends Charles Chauncy, Samuel Cooper, and Samuel Mather (son of Cotton Mather, who played a fringe role in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials).

Though there is no surviving transcript with which to flesh out the details of how they arrived at their conclusion, the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all present, to the degree that when Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was finally published the following year, Phillis’ book was printed with the following testimonial, bearing the signatures of all eighteen of her questioners:

We whose Names are under-written, do assure the World, that the Poems specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town. She has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them.

With skepticism rampant throughout the colonies, Susanna had gotten a copy of the manuscript in the hands of London publisher Archibald Bell by employing as a courier the captain of her husband John’s England-bound commercial trade ship. Phillis had already established a readership across the Atlantic thanks to the success of the widespread 1770 publication of On the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, her requiem for the recently deceased evangelical preacher, beloved both in the United Kingdom and its colonies. She would soon be accepted and treated as a celebrity, rubbing shoulders with royalty, having accolades and gifts heaped upon her by icons even in their own time and whose books today line our shelves and whose portraits adorn our currency. 

An Hymn to the Evening

“Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr’s wing,

Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.

Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,

And through the air, their mingled music floats.”

So that she could personally supervise the publication of her book, Susanna sent Phillis, chaperoned by the Wheatley’s son Nathaniel, to London whereupon she was squired about town to see the sights, including a tour of the Tower of London with Granville Sharp, one of the first English abolitionists.

She was received by the Earl of Dartmouth, who gave her the five guineas necessary to purchase the collected works of Alexander Pope, and was presented with a folio edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost by one-day Lord Mayor Brook Watson.

Even Benjamin Franklin, who was in London grieving the case for peaceful independence on behalf of the American colonies before the classes of the British citizenry, from the highest to most humble, deviated from his schedule of oratory and article writing to spend time with Phillis. She thought highly enough of him that she intended to dedicate her next book to the bespectacled diplomat. 

A momentous meeting with King George III, for whom she had written To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty in 1766 following his repeal of the Stamp Act, unfortunately did not occur as Susanna Wheatley’s health suffered a sudden decline, necessitating the immediate return of Phillis and Nathaniel. Susanna improved physically (for the time being) and, though Phillis would continue to live with them, she and John emancipated her shortly after her abrupt homecoming. A shipment of her books arrived at the New Haven customs office from London which she solicited by subscription, even imploring local publishers not to use them as a template from which to print and distribute copies of their own and, thus, undercutting her independent endeavor.

As heady as 1773 was for Phillis, the following year would prove just as sobering, bringing as it did the British occupation of Boston, the death of Susanna, and the resulting grief-stricken flight of John to points unknown. Phillis left for a time as well, living with the Wheatley’s daughter Mary and her husband in Providence until just before the Redcoats had been driven out of Boston.

A handwritten letter was sent by Phillis in October 1775 to Continental Army headquarters in Cambridge, MA addressed to the subject of her poem His Excellency General Washington, a copy of which was enclosed, “though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies”.

Four months later arrived a personal reply wherein George Washington apologized for “the seeming but not real neglect” of his delayed response while self-deprecatingly worrying over “however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric”. His effusive praise is augmented by an invitation for Phillis to call upon him, adding that “I shall be so happy to see a person so favored by the Muses”.

She did, weeks later, journey to from Boston to Cambridge where the General and his officers lavished their attentions upon her and Washington pledged to reprint her poem, a promise he made good on when it appeared in the March 1776 Virginia Gazette. Thomas Paine followed suit, publishing her ode to General Washington in the April edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette. 

An Hymn to the Morning

“Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display

To shield your poet from the burning day,

Calliope awake the sacred lyre,

While thy sisters fan the pleasing fire.”

Voltaire lent his endorsement to Phillis Wheatley’s work and she was sent a package from John Paul Jones, just prior to his embarking for Paris aboard the warship Ranger, containing praise of her writing along with hand selected copies of his own. 

Francois, the Marquis de Barbe-Marbois, whose request for statistical information on the American colonies inspired Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, had read Phillis’ verses, “in which there is imagination, poetry, and zeal”.

Jefferson, a slaveholding Francophile who would later be lionized by no less than Frederick Douglass, bristled at this praise being accorded the talents of an indentured servant (a black one, anyway-and heaven forbid, a woman - as he pointedly excused from the conversation former European slaves and prisoners Epictetus, Terence, and Phaedrus) who could never qualify as the white man’s cerebral equal.

Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry...Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Whatley (his spelling), but it could not produce a poet.

She is thereby reduced to a functional automaton capable of reading and, perhaps, comprehending Milton and Pope, the Athenians and Romans, but, creatively, of no better than their soulless mimicry.

Blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances,” supposed Jefferson’s vile but not unoriginal claim, “are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.

It is noteworthy, illustrates Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard professor and author of The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, that “Wheatley’s freedom enslaved her to a life of hardship.” Fame brought no fortune to Phillis, who married John Peters, a free black man whom Gates describes as a “small-time grocer and sometime lawyer”, in 1778. Their years together were ones of financial and personal strife compounded by the deaths of two infants and the failures of Peters’ business ventures, landing him in debtor’s prison and stranding Phillis at home with another unwell child.

Although a handful of New England newspapers did publish some of her last poems, she was unable to gather subscriptions sufficient to cover the printing costs of her second book and, to add to her humiliation, was forced to take work as a scullery maid.

Phillis Wheatley, only thirty years old, died on December 5, 1784 and was followed a little over three hours later by her infant son. Her own widowed husband was the first to soil her literary legacy by selling the only copy of her manuscript, which to this day has never been found.

Her reputation was called severely into question by black radicals during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, when Wheatley was denigrated as “an early Boston Aunt Jemima”, “a colonial handkerchief head”, and reflective of “the nigger component of the Black Experience”.

The spark of this controversy ignited a contemporary reevaluation of her life, beliefs, and writings. Although her prestige is still open to debate and her physical remains are in an unmarked grave somewhere in Boston, Phillis Wheatley was selected in 1993 for inclusion in the Boston Women’s Memorial on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall along with Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone, whose bronze sculptures thoughtfully consider one another from a triangular formation.

“Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,

At morn’ to wake more heav’nly refin’d,

So shall the labors of the day begin

More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.”

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Sources

• The Trials of Phillis Wheatley by Henry Louis Gates (Basic Civitas Books, 2003)
• Negro Poetry and Drama by Sterling Brown (Westphalia Press,1937)
• A Shining Thread of Hope by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson (Random House, 2009).
• Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers, Volume 1, edited by Yolanda Williams Page (Greenwood, 2007)
• Benjamin Franklin Holds Up a Looking Glass to the British Empire (Schiller Institute, September 2012)
• http://www.cityofboston.gov