Phillis Wheatley: Poems Lesson Plan

Does Jordan's essay make you see Wheatley's work differently? If so, how? If not, do you agree with her assessment of Wheatley's work?

Some students might not have seen the political subversiveness in Wheatley's work that Jordan illuminates here. Wheatley's poems on the surface seem pious and palatable; Jordan is pointing out seeds of resistance that may surprise students, and some students may still not be certain that these seeds of subversion really exist. However, it's important to note the ways that Jordan analyzes Wheatley's work as being specifically Black and belonging to a "miraculous" history of Black American poetry—she's writing in a way that got her a patron, but...