This Week's Story
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Slavery is a dark side of history with individual stories of victory breaking the chains. Phillis Wheatley knew victory and loss.
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
Phillis Wheatley loses and discovers Liberty! part one
Slavery was the loss of my Liberty! At first Africa was my homeland. It was where my ancestors were born and my roots still remain. I lived in a community of people loving one another and relying on one another. We were happy and free.
The slave trade was growing and reaching Africa. The African was hunted for profit. Slave catchers began kidnapping them. Many catchers believed their African victims were savages.
Thousands of Africans were captured from their homelands and sold as property. Their slave catchers were white and black and from many countries. Most were brutal. They rounded up Africans up and chained them together to prevent runaways. They placed them on ships. This was a life that the kidnapped slave could not have imagined. Their Liberty was taken. They would never see their homeland again.
I, Phillis Wheatley, was born in Africa in 1753. When I was six, I also was kidnapped, chained, and thrown into the belly of a ship. Stolen from my homeland, and taken across a vast ocean! Despite my small size, I was not spared. All the captives with me, and I, languished for
months with little food and little water. The ship’s belly was cold and damp. No windows allowed in sunlight or fresh air.
The smell was wretched. The odor of people was heavy in my nose. It made me vomit until I had nothing in my stomach. I moaned and cried for relief. I longed for relief from sickness and from the weight of being restrained for long periods of time. I longed to be with my family and see my mother and father.
In 1761 the ship we were on, the brig Phyllis, docked in Boston. The slaves were brought to an auction block. Each was first washed and cleaned. The stench of the ship was washed away. Each slave stood for proper inspection. Then each of us was brought to an auction block ready for buyers to inspect our potential worth. So, the auction began. Sellers and buyers haggled back and forth until a price was agreed upon. The satisfied buyers tethered their slaves to wagons.
The ship I had been on was named The Phyllis. The family that purchased me was surnamed Wheatley. So I became known as Phillis Wheatley. I was now seven or eight years old. I was not sure how old I was.
John Wheatley brought me to his home where he lived with his wife Susanna, his daughter Mary and her twin brother Nathan. They were eighteen when I arrived. Mistress Susanna provided for my care. She was very kind and I was treated as a family member. I ate with them at meal times. I was given food, clothing, and even slept in the family home.
In part two I would like to share opportunities I had to inspire people in the Thirteen Colonies and Europe.
Join Gwen Crawford as she shares research about Phillis Wheatley, an American of the Revolutionary War era. Check out thisweeksstory.com.
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