Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons

by Ann Rinaldi

  Research tells us that Mrs. Wheatley tutored her. Yet in The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley, edited by John Shields, we are told that likely it was Nathaniel who tutored her in Latin and Greek and the classics. "Given the wealth and status of the Wheatley family," we are told here, "it is likely Nathaniel attended Boston Latin School through the sixth form." Mrs. Wheatley did not know Greek and Latin. Nathaniel did. Although she may have had additional instruction from learned ministers, I went with Nathaniel as her tutor.

  It is speculated that Phillis came from Senegal, West Africa. So I created a background along that line and recounted the middle passage as best I could, after considerable study concerning that terrible experience. Captain Quinn really did bring her over on the Phillis, and it is thought that Obour did come with her. However, nowhere is it mentioned that her mother made that voyage. This is my invention.

  As to how and when she wrote her poems, I adhered closely to the schedule of production. As for the poetry itself, it is very scholarly, very eighteenth century. It relies heavily on Greek and Roman mythology. It would not be understood or enjoyed by my readers. For this reason, I have not quoted it at any length.

  Her meeting and "oral exam" in front of the distinguished men of Boston did happen, although no one knows the questions they actually asked her.

  Mrs. Wheatley did take her about Boston to meet important personages, to display her, and have Phillis recite. She was accruing a support group to get the first book published.

  Phillis's trip to London is written much as it happened. She went under Nathaniel's protection, saw and did all the things I have portrayed, with the exception of the scene in which Nathaniel walks in with Mary Enderby. (Although he did court Mary Enderby on this trip and married her that November.)

  In London she was received, celebrated, and coddled. And Benjamin Franklin did call on her. Nathaniel would not receive him, however. It is believed that was because of the recent Somerset Decision, which pronounced Negroes free, "simply by breathing the free air of England." And because Franklin was antislavery.

  When Phillis returned to America she did nurse her mistress, and later cared for her master. He freed her in October of that year, after London reviews of her book criticized the fact that she was in bondage.

  Scipio Moorhead did draw her portrait.

  Hundreds of other parts of this book are true. I cannot name them all here. A perusal of the scholarly books on Phillis Wheatley will bring them to light.

  As for Phillis's meeting with George Washington in Cambridge in December 1775, it did happen. I saw the meeting with Washington as the high point of her life. From that moment on the war worsens and so does Phillis's condition. It steadily goes downhill.

  I saw no reason to elaborate on her troubles after marriage in this book. I wanted my readers to see her in the prime of her creativity, in her girlhood, touched by the wand of the Wheatleys' kindness and generosity. That wand, as I see it, was a double-edged sword, in that they lifted her out of poverty and servitude, educated, and nurtured her. Yet at the same time they kept her in silken fetters.

  One can interpret their treatment in two ways. Did they use her for their own enjoyment, then cast her aside, unprepared for what would follow? She was' constantly referred to as "Mrs. Wheatley's Negro girl who writes poetry."

  Or did they rescue her from terrible circumstances and give her the opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity that her own willfulness brought to a bitter end?

  Did they prepare her for life? Or make her so dependent on them that she could not function when left to her own devices? Was it fair to educate and encourage her to be a poet when the world was not ready for a black poet? Should she have been kept a slave? Not educated?

  All is open to interpretation. I have interpreted the facts in my own way. In this author's note, I separate them from my fiction, so my readers may be able to make their own judgments.

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  Bibliography

  Alderman, Clifford Lindsey. Rum, Slaves and Molasses: The Story of New England's Triangular Trade. New York: Crowell-Collier Press, 1972.

  Bowen, Catherine Drinker. John Adams and the American Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950.

  Grzimek, Bernhard. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975.

  Hogendorn, Jan, and Marion Johnson. The Shell Money of the Slave Trade. London: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

  Johnson, Charles. Middle Passage. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.

  Robinson, William H. Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings. New York: Garland Publishing, 1984.

  Wheatley, Phillis. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley. Edited by John C. Shields. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

  White, Anne Terry. Human Cargo: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Champaign, Ill.: Garrard Publishing, 1972

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  Reader Chat Page

  1. Describe the conditions on the slaver that carried Phillis to America. What qualities did Phillis possess that helped her survive the treacherous journey?

  2. Phillis feels a lot of guilt—about disobeying her mother, about Aunt Cumsee's bout with smallpox, about too readily accepting "Koomi" ways, and about forgiving Americans for enslaving her people. Explain why she feels so guilty about these issues.

  3. Describe Phillis's attitude toward Jesus and the Christian faith. Do you think it fair that the Wheatleys forced her to give up her own religious rituals? Why were they so insistent that she give up her own religion?

  4. What kinds of feelings inspired Phillis to write her poems?

  5. Phillis's life is much different from the lives of Prince, Obour, and many other slaves who desperately sought freedom. What were the advantages and disadvantages of freedom for Phillis?

  6. What is Nathaniel's attitude about the slave trade, and why does it change?

  7. What do Phillis and George Washington have in common?

  8. George Washington gives Phillis this advice: "Love is a mighty pretty thing, but like all delicious things, it is cloying. It is too dainty a thing to live on alone, and ought not to be considered more than a necessary ingredient for that happiness that results from a combination of causes." How does it apply to Phillis's life?

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  About the Author

  ANN RINALDI is an award-winning author best known for her skill at bringing history vividly to life. A self-made writer, Ms. Rinaldi never attended college but learned her craft through reading and writing. As a columnist for twenty-one years at The Trentonian in New Jersey, she learned the art of finding a good story, capturing it in words, and meeting a deadline.

  Ms. Rinaldi attributes her interest in history to her son, who enlisted her to take part in historical reenactments up and down the East Coast, where she cooked the food, made the clothing, and learned about the dances, songs, and lifestyles that prevailed in eighteenth-century America.

  Ann Rinaldi lives with her husband in central New Jersey.

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