Nie mehr, Amerika!

When Phillis Wheatley published her book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773, she made history in more ways than one. She was the first African-American person to publish a book of poetry. And she was a slave. Wheatley's journey from abducted child from West Africa to founder of African American literature was fraught with obstacles. The fact that an African-American person could write poetry first had to be proven to the white reading public. And the criticism of the published volume was also marked by racial devaluation - among her greatest critics was none other than Thomas Jefferson. Wheatley the poet takes her formal cues from British classicism, but she speaks in an independent voice and is confident in her African-American identity. She makes the case for American independence from the British while exposing the double standards of a slaveholding society that insists on freedom. Her devotional religiosity and longing for transcendence takes on special significance in view of the suffering of the African-American population.

In the canon of US literature, the pioneering Wheatley has long been established. On the 250th anniversary of the publication of her book of poems, her groundbreaking work and her moving life are finally being made accessible to the German reading public.