Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.

She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.

Her slave owners taught her to read and write as a child.  She wrote her first poem at the age of 13.  It was published in Boston, Newport and Rhode Island. At age 18, she had an entire collection of poems her slave owners attempted to have published. They had no luck in the colonies, so they went to Europe.

Yet at the publication of her book, her work was called into question because they did not believe that a person of African descent could be smart enough to write so well. Wheatly found herself before several of the most powerful men in the country being questioned about her writing.  These men included Massachusetts Govenor Thomas Hutchinson,  John Hancock who would become a significant part of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams and more. The common thought was that Africans were not intelligent enough to do such work.

Phillis would write about important moments in American History like the Boston Massacre. She would correspond with significant figures in history, including George Washington and John Newton.

After the publication of her book, Wheatly was freed from slavery. She would have to find a way to take care of herself because her book was not doing well in the colonies.  She would meet a free man of African descent, who was a grocer. She married John Peters. They struggled to take care of themselves, as free former slaves had a difficult time finding work. Peters eventually went to jail for debt. Phillis would die in poverty, but still trying to publish her work. She died in 1784 at the age of 31.

Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.

She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.

Her slave owners taught her to read and write as a child.  She wrote her first poem at the age of 13.  It was published in Boston, Newport and Rhode Island. At age 18, she had an entire collection of poems her slave owners attempted to have published. They had no luck in the colonies, so they went to Europe.

Phillis Wheatley Peters

Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.

She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.

So I am very behind, as I post on the last day of January. I am trying some new things with my art, so as i explore more about image and storytelling, watch me work. The theme for 2024 is Intersectionality as we explore what it is like being African American and Female. Meeting at the intersection of Race and Gender.

For January we look at the life of Anna Julia Cooper. She lived within the lines of her society, but still had the desire to expand them.

She was born in 1858, into slavery in Raliegh North Carolina. She started life working as a domestic servant, but soon gained a world class eduation. She attended St Augustine’s School in Raliegh, where she would meet her husband, George A. C. Cooper. He would die within two years. As unfortunate as it was, his death allowed her to continue to teach.

TEACH

She attended Oberlin College with classmate Mary Church Terrell. In 1924, she was one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. When she could not find a university in the United sTates that would allow her this type of eduication, she attended Sorbonne, University of Paris. She spent many years of her life teaching.

WRITE

She also wrote her first book, A Voice from the South, which gave a realistis educated view of what life was like for African Americans during her lifetime.

SPEAK

In 1900 Cooper participated in the First Pan African Conference in London.

FORM

With Helen Appo Cook, Ida B Wells, Charlotte Forten Grimke, Mary Jane Peterson, Mary Church Terrell and Evelyn Shaw formed the Colored Women’s League in Washington, DC.

Anna Julia Cooper was a woman who didn’t not let life roll on by. She participated in things most women like her did not have access to. She helped change the way people though about situations. She leaves us all better for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_J._Cooper

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

She was born in St Louis, Missouri, as Freda Josephine McDonald where she had a very rough beginning. She dropped out of school at age 12 and had two failed marriages at ages 13 and 15.  Then she joined a vaudeville troupe that took her to New York City. She later became part of a show, Shuffle Along in the chorus line. This would be one of the first steps to her success. She joined the cast in the chorus.

She used comedy to make herself stand out in the chorus line, and later launch a career that sent her overseas because prejudice limited what she could accomplish in the United States. In Paris she became a success which led to a career that spanned all over Europe.  Some have called her the first Beyonce in that she starred in theater and movies in France and became a standout star.

She did not limit her life to performance, during World War II she became a spy for the French Resistance and later received a medal for her work. In the 1950s became active in the Civil Rights Movement traveling throughout the southern part of the United States. Ever the humanitarian, she also adopted 12 children from around the world and raise them.

She died in Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, at age 68, on April 12, 1975. She is the only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral. In August 2021 the French President, Emmanuel Macron, announced that Baker’s remains would be reburied at the Panthéon in November 2021.

Her son Claude Bouillon-Baker told Agence France-Presse that her body would remain in Monaco and only a plaque would be installed at the Panthéon. It was later announced that a symbolic casket containing soil from various locations where Baker had lived, including St. Louis, Paris, the South of France and Monaco, would be carried by the French Air and Space Force in a parade in Paris before a ceremony at the Panthéon where the casket was interred.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker