To His Excellency General Washington | Interpreting Wheatley's Poem

In this essay, the author recognizes the
common tendency to interpret Wheatley’s poem in
terms of her race and her significance to blacks in
America, but he urges readers to not make too
much of what is not there.

To contemporary students, the story of Phillis Wheatley is often more interesting than her poems. This is especially true in the case of the historical poem “To His Excellency General Washington,” which comes with a full background story, complete with a guest appearance by one of America’s most famous personages. The poem’s root story is fascinating and is itself an important part of the nation’s heritage. It does indeed deserve to be studied today because the details about race, education, and heroism have much to tell about how the country developed to the point at which it...

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