On Imagination

Wheatley’s 1773 collection of poems in which “On Imagination” first appeared is cited historically as the first book published by an African American. It is important to note, however, that at the time of the publication, Wheatley was African, certainly, but hardly an American. From a legal standpoint, she was property owned by a prominent and wealthy New England family.

Narratives of enslavement, as a genre, emerged in the decades after Wheatley’s death as a critical expression of those brought to the US enslaved. These narratives, usually from the first-person point of view, typically described not only the difficult passage from their home culture but also the adjustment to the onerous conditions of their enslavement.

On its face, “On Imagination” does not seem to qualify. Wheatley does not detail her kidnapping, the grim two-month ocean passage from Africa, or even the limitations of her life with the Wheatleys. Yet at the emotional heart of her celebration of the imagination is the reality that the speaker can only be free in the radiant un-reality of her fancy.

That the conditions of her enslavement were much less severe than many recorded in other narratives—Wheatley was enslaved as a domestic servant in the house of a generous family who treated her with dignity—does not minimize the reality that Wheatley endured the indignities of enslavement.