The Lentz family from Connecticut feeling the Woman's Monument moment on Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA
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| Lentz Family Enjoying Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To US |
The Boston Women’s Memorial 2003: Phillis Wheatley
Commonwealth Ave Mall Meredith Bergman, Sculptor Bronze / Stone
Born in West Africa and sold as a slave from the ship “Phillis” in Colonial Boston, Phillis Wheatley (1753 - 1784) was a literary prodigy whose 1773 volume “Poem on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” was the first book published by an African writer in America.
As a free black woman she was a mentor, breaking the old rules in order to build new ones, to inspire every- one, of any race or gender, to be more intellectually free.
She is also credited with originating the genres of African-American poetry and African-American wom- en’s literature. No one in America was willing to print her works, her first writings were published in London, Eng- land. Americans initially doubted that a slave woman could have written these poems, and so Wheatley was subjected to an interrogation by several prominent Bosto- nian men to determine whether she did indeed write them. They concluded that she did.
The statue is part of the Boston Women’s Memo- rial on Commonwealth Avenue, a series of three statues of Bostonian women by Meredith Bergmann: Wheatley, Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone. This poem, which gives a taste of her work, is inscribed on the memorial:
‘Imagination! Who can sing thy force? Or who describe the swiftness of thy course? Soaring through air to find the bright abode, Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God, We on thy pinions can surpass the wind, And leave the rolling universe behind: From star to star the mental optics rove, Measure the skies, and range the realms above. There in one view we grasp the mighty whole, Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul. ‘ Taken from the Stone
Commonwealth Ave Mall Meredith Bergman, Sculptor Bronze / Stone
Born in West Africa and sold as a slave from the ship “Phillis” in Colonial Boston, Phillis Wheatley (1753 - 1784) was a literary prodigy whose 1773 volume “Poem on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” was the first book published by an African writer in America.
As a free black woman she was a mentor, breaking the old rules in order to build new ones, to inspire every- one, of any race or gender, to be more intellectually free.
She is also credited with originating the genres of African-American poetry and African-American wom- en’s literature. No one in America was willing to print her works, her first writings were published in London, Eng- land. Americans initially doubted that a slave woman could have written these poems, and so Wheatley was subjected to an interrogation by several prominent Bosto- nian men to determine whether she did indeed write them. They concluded that she did.
The statue is part of the Boston Women’s Memo- rial on Commonwealth Avenue, a series of three statues of Bostonian women by Meredith Bergmann: Wheatley, Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone. This poem, which gives a taste of her work, is inscribed on the memorial:
‘Imagination! Who can sing thy force? Or who describe the swiftness of thy course? Soaring through air to find the bright abode, Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God, We on thy pinions can surpass the wind, And leave the rolling universe behind: From star to star the mental optics rove, Measure the skies, and range the realms above. There in one view we grasp the mighty whole, Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul. ‘ Taken from the Stone
In July 1761, Mrs. Susanna Wheatley, the wife of a prosperous tailor with a large house on King Street,
purchased a sickly eight-year-old African girl from Senegal who had been transported to Boston as a slave. By the
time of her arrival, there were about 1,000 slaves in the town, whose total population was some 15,000 persons. The
young girl took the name of Phillis Wheatley, and within two years she had learned English from the family with
which she lived and worked.
"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" by Joseph R. Gallo Jr. can be purchased on Amazon.com and "I Am Books" North End Boston, MA.
Boston Is America, America Is Boston
"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" by Joseph R. Gallo Jr. can be purchased on Amazon.com and "I Am Books" North End Boston, MA.
Boston Is America, America Is Boston
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