ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the National Council on the Humanities and William Ferris, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for selecting me to deliver the 2002 Jefferson Lecture and Bruce Cole, Dr. Ferrisâs successor, for his generous introduction to my lecture and for his kindness and hospitality to me and my family during our stay in Washington, and my visit with the staff at the endowment. To be chosen to deliver the Jefferson Lecture is a signal honor in a humanistâs career. It most certainly was in mine, and I was deeply honored and humbled by my selection.
Several friends and colleagues aided me enormously both as I prepared the lecture and the longer essay that grew from the lecture. Jennifer Wood-Nangombe and Terri Oliver helped me to locate secondary sources on Wheatley, Jefferson, and Wheatleyâs eighteen âauthenticators.â John Stauffer pointed me to the writings of several black abolitionists who wrote about Thomas Jefferson. Vincent Carretta kindly lent his considerable expertise on Wheatley and her world as I completed my manuscript, and William Andrews helped me to understand Wheatley in the larger context of slave literature. Dana Goodyear and Henry Finder provided remarkably generous editorial advice as I revised the lecture for publication in The New Yorker . Homi Bhabha, Ted Widmer, and Argela DeLeon offered valuable comments on the working draft. Hollis Rob-bins aided me enormously in editing the various versions of this essay and arriving at a
final text. Abby Wolf checked my bibliographical sources and helped me to compile the bibliography. Elizabeth Maguire expressed support for the publication of my Jefferson Lecture as a book almost as soon as it was delivered, and her assistant, Will Morrison Garland, helped me to adhere to a strict set of deadlines. Joanne Kendall, as always, typed the several drafts of the text. William Ferris, former chair of the endowment, extended the invitation to deliver the Jefferson Lecture, while his successor, Bruce Cole, assisted ably by his colleague, Mary Lou Beatty, presided graciously and efficiently over the lecture and the ceremonies surrounding it. I would especially like to thank my wife, Sharon Adams, for her enthusiasm for this project, and her patience as I struggled to complete this meditation on Phillis Wheatleyâs importance to her own time, and ours.
PREFACE
T his book is an expanded version of the Thomas Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities that I was privileged to deliver to the Library of Congress in March 2002. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the National Endowment for the Humanities, its past chairman William R. Ferris, its current chairman, Bruce Cole, and the National Council on the Humanities for choosing me to deliver the Jefferson Lecture on the thirtieth anniversary of the series.
The Jefferson Lectures began in 1972 with Lionel Trillingâs address on âMind in the Modern World.â As hard as it is to believe, the
Jefferson Lectures are more than a tenth as old as the nation they serve. I am honored to occupy a line of succession that includes Saul Bellow, Walker Percy, Toni Morrison, John Hope Franklin, and so many other luminaries.
It is humbling to receive what has been called the highest intellectual honor bestowed by the U.S. government. I feel especially humbled and appreciative because I interpret this honor as a statement about my field, African-American studies, which arrived in the academy only three decades ago.
I am especially proud to be a fellow country-man of Jeffersonâs in several senses. As a citizen, like all of you, of the republic of letters. As an American who believes deeply in the soaring promise of the Declaration of Independence. As a native of Piedmont, West Virginia, and, hence, in a broad sense, a fellow Virginian.
Who knows? Judging from all the DNA disclosures of the last few years, I may even be related to him. For all
I would like to thank the National Council on the Humanities and William Ferris, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for selecting me to deliver the 2002 Jefferson Lecture and Bruce Cole, Dr. Ferrisâs successor, for his generous introduction to my lecture and for his kindness and hospitality to me and my family during our stay in Washington, and my visit with the staff at the endowment. To be chosen to deliver the Jefferson Lecture is a signal honor in a humanistâs career. It most certainly was in mine, and I was deeply honored and humbled by my selection.
Several friends and colleagues aided me enormously both as I prepared the lecture and the longer essay that grew from the lecture. Jennifer Wood-Nangombe and Terri Oliver helped me to locate secondary sources on Wheatley, Jefferson, and Wheatleyâs eighteen âauthenticators.â John Stauffer pointed me to the writings of several black abolitionists who wrote about Thomas Jefferson. Vincent Carretta kindly lent his considerable expertise on Wheatley and her world as I completed my manuscript, and William Andrews helped me to understand Wheatley in the larger context of slave literature. Dana Goodyear and Henry Finder provided remarkably generous editorial advice as I revised the lecture for publication in The New Yorker . Homi Bhabha, Ted Widmer, and Argela DeLeon offered valuable comments on the working draft. Hollis Rob-bins aided me enormously in editing the various versions of this essay and arriving at a
final text. Abby Wolf checked my bibliographical sources and helped me to compile the bibliography. Elizabeth Maguire expressed support for the publication of my Jefferson Lecture as a book almost as soon as it was delivered, and her assistant, Will Morrison Garland, helped me to adhere to a strict set of deadlines. Joanne Kendall, as always, typed the several drafts of the text. William Ferris, former chair of the endowment, extended the invitation to deliver the Jefferson Lecture, while his successor, Bruce Cole, assisted ably by his colleague, Mary Lou Beatty, presided graciously and efficiently over the lecture and the ceremonies surrounding it. I would especially like to thank my wife, Sharon Adams, for her enthusiasm for this project, and her patience as I struggled to complete this meditation on Phillis Wheatleyâs importance to her own time, and ours.
PREFACE
T his book is an expanded version of the Thomas Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities that I was privileged to deliver to the Library of Congress in March 2002. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the National Endowment for the Humanities, its past chairman William R. Ferris, its current chairman, Bruce Cole, and the National Council on the Humanities for choosing me to deliver the Jefferson Lecture on the thirtieth anniversary of the series.
The Jefferson Lectures began in 1972 with Lionel Trillingâs address on âMind in the Modern World.â As hard as it is to believe, the
Jefferson Lectures are more than a tenth as old as the nation they serve. I am honored to occupy a line of succession that includes Saul Bellow, Walker Percy, Toni Morrison, John Hope Franklin, and so many other luminaries.
It is humbling to receive what has been called the highest intellectual honor bestowed by the U.S. government. I feel especially humbled and appreciative because I interpret this honor as a statement about my field, African-American studies, which arrived in the academy only three decades ago.
I am especially proud to be a fellow country-man of Jeffersonâs in several senses. As a citizen, like all of you, of the republic of letters. As an American who believes deeply in the soaring promise of the Declaration of Independence. As a native of Piedmont, West Virginia, and, hence, in a broad sense, a fellow Virginian.
Who knows? Judging from all the DNA disclosures of the last few years, I may even be related to him. For all
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