Phillis Wheatley vs. Philip Freneau

    Phillis Wheatley's work consisted mostly of inspiring poems and letters that cried out for freedom and independence. This is much the same as the some of the work of Philip Freneau, who was something of a "literary hit man" for men like Thomas Jefferson.While Freneau wrote for independence of the white man, Wheatley wrote for the black. Her poems were a strong voice during the late 1700's--a time when America was crying out for freedom from Britain, or at the very least representation in the mother country.
   One of Wheatley's main focuses was slavery. It was her belief that American independence and American slavery could not co-exist; in fact, to have such a situation would be very hypocritical. This is what she is trying to show to a secretary of state in her "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North America, &c." William Legge was not sympathetic to the cause of the American Revolution (Baym, 754). Wheatley reall butters him up in her poem, which probably helps to get him to accept what she is really trying to say here. You can find the heart of the poem in lines 20-31.
   In Freneau's "To Sir Toby," we can find a different manner of protestation entirely. He provides a more violent presentation of slavery and names the poem in honor of a slave master. He doesn't cut to the chase in the beginning. "If there exists a hell--the case is clear--/ Sir Toby's slaves enjoy that portion here:/ Here are no blazing brimstone lakes--'tis true;/ But kidnled rum too often burns as blue;/ In which some fiend, whom nature must detest,/ Steeps Toby's brand, and marks poor Cudjoe's breat." Freneau goes on to speak of whipping, chains, imprisonment, and lots of creepy crawley things--surely not a pleasant poem.
  Yet he gets a point across to us; that freedom is something slaves long for, yet must pass through inumerable toils to attain.
  This is not the style Phillis Wheatley chooses to use, and I can't help but think she probably gained more fans that way. You know what they say:  you can catch more flies with honey.