My Name is Phillis Wheatley: A Story of Slavery and Freedom

Young Penda Wane enjoys a happy life in Africa until slave traders arrive and she is transported from the places and people she knows to her new home as a slave in Boston. The Wheatley family who buy her treat Penda – now Phillis, named for the slave ship she arrived on – as a valued household servant and make the effort to educate her once they realize how intelligent she is. Very soon, Phillis has poetry that simply has to come out of her head and find its way onto paper. It becomes evident that she is gifted, but finding support is difficult. People wonder if she could have actually written the poetry, and, consequently, no one wants to print a copy of her work, much less buy a book of her poetry. Phillis must constantly prove herself.

Afua Cooper brings a great deal of history to light in this short historical fiction. Readers follow Phillis as she is captured, walks miles to the sea, and then must endure unimaginable conditions aboard a slave ship. The author’s attention to detail gives her audience a clear sense of the sounds and smells on board.

Like Phillis, readers arrive in Boston and come to understand the conditions there in the mid-eighteenth century and the events leading to the American Revolution. Cooper drops many historical facts and names into the novel, both in the United States and in England, giving the story a solid context for young readers.

Throughout the story, readers experience the mix of feelings undergone by Phillis and see her sadness and her loneliness which often cause her to despair despite the family surrounding her and the friends she makes. At other times, readers share in her happiness and her triumph as she proves beyond any doubt that she is deserving of the literary accolades she receives.

Naturally the themes of racism and prejudice are woven throughout the book as Phillis experiences them not only from society in general but also from those who support her and care about her. Readers may debate whether things have substantially changed in the intervening centuries.

Phillis Wheatley has made history. She was the first American slave and the first person of African descent to have her work published and was only the third colonial woman to reach this milestone. Afua Cooper, herself an award-winning author and poet, has taken an important yet perhaps little-known person from the past and brought her to life to both entertain and educate her young readers.