Home > Feminism > Wheatley, Phillis - Betsy Erkkila (Essay Date Fall 1987)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

BETSY ERKKILA (ESSAY DATE FALL 1987)

SOURCE: Erkkila, Betsy. “Revolutionary Women.“ Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 6, no. 2 (fall 1987): 189-223.

In the following excerpt, Erkkila discusses Wheatley’s life and work along with the correspondence of Abigail Adams, wife of the early American leader John Adams. Erkkila suggests that the writings of these women, a white colonist and a black slave, reveal the full extent of the force of the revolution. In their challenges to men of power, Erkkila contends, they attempted to link the fight for American freedom to the liberation of women, white and black.

In a letter written to John Adams during the Revolutionary war, Abigail Adams described the appearance of a new phenomenon in America: the female mob. Angry at “an eminent, wealthy, stingy Merchant,” who was hoarding coffee and refusing to sell at a reasonable price, “a Number of Females...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Phillis Wheatley (Letter Date 1773)
   2. Phillis Wheatley (Letter Date 1774)
4. General Commentary
   1. M. A. Richmond (Essay Date 1974)
   2. Betsy Erkkila (Essay Date Fall 1987)
   3. Walt Nott (Essay Date Fall 1993)
5. Title Commentary
   1. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright

1. Feminism