Join JASNA-NC for a discussion of our Austen contemporary selection, Phillis Wheatley’s writings. Wheatley is a transatlantic contemporary of Austen’s, and her experience as a black enslaved person ties in with Jane Austen and her family’s interest and participation in abolition. We’ll explore Wheatley’s poetry and contemplate connections between Austen’s writing and Wheatley’s. It’s sure to be a fascinating discussion!
what to read
We will focus on these five poems for discussion:
- “On being brought from Africa to America“
- “An Hymn to the Morning“
- “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary fo State for North-America, &c.“
- “To S.M., a young African Painter, on seeing his Works“
- “A Farewell to America. To Mrs. S.W.“
The Details
What: Virtual Book Club: Phillis Wheatley’s Writings
When: February 16, 2025 from 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Where: In the comfort of your home via Zoom
RSVP: This event is open to members and interested guests; it is FREE but registration is required. Register for Zoom here.
Accessibility: We have auto-captions available in the Zoom meeting for our conversation, and there may be slides with text and images accompany the presentation that will be as clear and as high-contrast as possible. If you have accessibility needs we have not addressed here, please let us know.
About the Book
In 1761, a young girl arrived in Boston on a ship of enslaved people, was sold to the Wheatley family, and given the name Phillis Wheatley. After studying English and classical literature, geography, the Bible, and Latin, Phillis published her first poem in 1767 at the age of 14, winning much public attention and considerable fame. When Boston publishers who doubted its authenticity rejected an initial collection of her poetry, Wheatley sailed to London in 1773 and found a publisher there for Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.
This volume collects both Wheatley’s letters and her poetry: hymns, elegies, translations, philosophical poems, tales, and epyllions–including a poignant plea to the Earl of Dartmouth urging freedom for America and comparing the country’s condition to her own. With her contemplative elegies and her use of the poetic imagination to escape an unsatisfactory world, Wheatley anticipated the Romantic Movement of the following century. The appendices to this edition include poems of Wheatley’s contemporary African-American poets: Lucy Terry, Jupiter Harmon, and Francis Williams.
About The Virtual Book Club
The Virtual Book Club takes place quarterly with the typical following rotation: a contemporary of Austen, nonfiction work, an Austen selection, and a fanfiction work. Our members Mary Jane Curry, Nancy Martin Young, and Sara Tavela serve as our primary book club facilitators and help coordinate our book selections.