Journal for Wheatley

"Once Phillis Wheatley demonstrated her abilities, the Wheatleys, clearly a family of culture and education, allowed Phillis time to do study and write. Her situation allowed her time to learn and, as early as 1765, to write poetry. Phillis Wheatley had fewer restrictions than most slaves experienced -- but she was still a slave. Her situation was unusual. She was not quite part of the white Wheatley family, nor did she quite share the place and experiences of other slaves."
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframerwriters/a/philliswheatley.htm

It is tempting to say that Phillis Wheatley was very fortunate. She was treated kindly by her owners, who recognized her intelligence and ability and saw that she was well educated at a time when most white women were not. She was even sent to England by the Wheatleys for her health. She was emancipated by her master and married the man of her choice. She had the confidence to write to George Washington and Benjamin Franklin came to pay her respects when she was in London. Compare her with Harriet Jacobs and she was blessed by fortune.

We cannot forget, however, that she was kidnapped at the age of eight and sold into slavery. She endured the terror of the slave ships that Equiano describes so vividly in his autobiography. She must have felt terribly torn between anger and gratitude, bearing the scars of that trauma amid circumstances that she could not fail to see were remarkably fortunate for a slave. It seems to me that she decided to dedicate her talents to gently and artfully making white people see the humanity of blacks, and to remind them of the teachings of their own religion:

"Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain
May be refined, and join the angelic train."
from "On Being Brought from Africa to America", (Wheatley, p. 753)

I know that many readers react negatively to her work, feeling that she is over-assimilated, that her mind is colonized. I read an article that made the case that her Christian imagery was actually subversive. I don't have enough Biblical knowledge for that kind of reading, but it was certainly a very interesting thesis. In any case I think that given the circumstances of her life and the constraints that we she was under to publish her work at all, as a woman, let alone a slave, the conciliatory tone and character of her work is understandable.