Interview with Katy Chiles on “Phillis Wheatley, Amanuensis – a letter from Susanna"

A letter from a prosperous Boston matron may not seem a surprising or noteworthy exercise of literacy -- until it appears, as scholar Katy Chiles proposes, that the handwriting of the letter likely belongs to Phillis Wheatley. What does it mean if the forced labor of this enslaved poet, now acclaimed as one of the progenitors of African American literature, taking dictation from her elderly enslaver? On this episode, Katy describes how she found the letter, and why it’s important to consider Philllis Wheatley’s work as an Amanuensis, or person who took dictation, in addition to her better-known work as a poetry.

Transcript link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rU-z1yp4zJ-UxVmDS_7D-bP7SnrxC4dB/view?usp=sharing

Explore Hidden Literacies at https://www.hiddenliteracies.org

Learn more about Katy Chile’s work here: https://english.utk.edu/katy-chiles/

Hidden Literacies brings together leading scholars of historical literacy to investigate the surprising, often neglected roles reading and writing have played in the lives of marginalized Americans—from indigenous and enslaved people to prisoners and young children.  By presenting high-resolution images of archival texts and pairing them with expert commentary, Hidden Literacies aims to make these writers and texts—which too often lie below the radar of American literature curricula—more available and accessible to teachers and researchers.

Hidden Literacies is edited by Christopher Hager and Hilary Wyss.

Christopher Hager is Professor of English at Trinity College, where he teaches courses in American literature and American Studies.

Hilary E. Wyss is the Allan K. Smith and Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of English at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she teaches courses in early American literature, American studies, and Native American studies.

Hidden Literacies was produced with the support of the following staff members of Trinity College Information Technology & Library Services:

Cait Kennedy, Research, Outreach, and Technology Librarian

Mary Mahoney, Digital Scholarship Coordinator

Joelle Thomas, Digital Learning & Discovery Librarian

Hidden Literacies: the Podcast was recorded, edited, and produced by Mary Mahoney.

Sound Credits:

“Crescents” by Ketsa (Free Music Archive)