Creative Bias and Artistic Individuality in the Poetry of Phillis Wheatley

Indianapolis, IN

The identity of the early American artist is partially constructed using essential religious interpretations of the natural world. The philosophical and religious thought processes of the time followed a hierarchal chain of being wherein non-whites were deemed intellectually unable to interpret the natural world in the context of religion and, thus, not able to be an artist. This paper discusses the ways in which Phillis Wheatley's poem "To S.M., a Young African Painter" illustrates her inherited culture's bias against the creative expression of Africans and proves that it is possible for a slave to possess artistic individuality. Through an analysis Wheatley's portrayal of the young African painter and her evocation of symbols to signify her personal religious interpretation of the natural world, this paper demonstrates Wheatley's strong rebuttal against the widely accepted notion that creativity and identity are exclusively White traits. This paper proves that Wheatley's poem actually creates a sense of artistic individuality and that demonstrates that a non-white person can create rich and culturally relevant art.