Phillis Wheatley..

Recently, I was reading through this thread on African Americans ignored by history:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=258&topic_id=2983&mesg_id=2983

I noticed the reference to Phillis Wheatley in that thread. I happen to be a Google Earth enthusiast and awhile back created a Geo-Biography for her. (A Geo-Biography in the context of Google Earth matches the circumstances of someone's life to their various geographical locations.) Files like these, if posted to Google's official Earth forum, can be added to the Google Earth database. I was looking for a woman to write about, since discussions about women there are in short supply on the forum. (I'd previously created a presentation about Jane Austen and one about the 6 women who had the grave misfortune to have married Henry VIII.)

So I started looking around for a subject and found a shortened version of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s monograph on Phillis Wheatley. I checked out his book from the library and then looked about the internet for the limited information about her to create my presentation.

If you have Google Earth and have any interest in looking at it, the presentation can be downloaded from this page, where I post as LuciaM:

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=665416

I would be very interested in your views of it. (For the record, I am white female.)

"Even worse than the criticism is the fact that so few today know of her existence"

I have to count myself in that list. You have just blasted me back 25+ years when I was a knobby-kneed kid going to summer classes at the Phyllis Wheatley YMCA in Southwest Atlanta. That was the first and last time I'd ever heard her name. I am ashamed.

Thank you so much for this. Not only for the research you've done but for posting this here in AAIG.

Your presentation on Google Earth has literally taken my breath away. For one, I had no idea that Google Earth could be used this way. (And yes, I am admitting that I am (sort of) old.) :) And to be used as a way to understand the history of this country is nothing short of phenomenal.

I'm sorry I can't be of more use to you than this. If this was my 10th Google Earth Geo-Biography I may be less gobsmacked but this is my first one and I think that it is simply INCREDIBLE and I am in awe of you, your work and your obvious interest and appreciation of history. I'd love to see any others historical Geo-biographies you've done and would love to see any updates you make to this one.

research all that you can do with Google...had no idea?! Great article and thanks for the information. I remember one of my boys doing a report on her, but I honestly couldn't remember what it was about. Thanks again!

she had such a sad and tragic life and yet at the same time, was quite triumphal. And I gotta say, while I've never been an acolyte of Thomas Jefferson's (as several people on DU seem to be), I was horrified by his snide comments about her in Notes on the State of Virginia. (I mean, if someone violently ripped him away from his life and transported back to Ancient Egypt as an 8 year old, what would his accomplishments have been 5 or 6 years later?) And George Washington's graciousness to her made me respect him even more.

If you've time to waste, here's a hodge-podge of the layers I've done.
http://sites.google.com/site/luciamgelayers/Home

They are quite an ecletic bunch. The blue icons go to the forum pages which describe the files in detail. The Jane Austen one and the Six Wives of Henry VIII, which are near the end, are probably the most detailed. (I have a layer on the 'Negro League' Players in the Baseball Hall of Fame but it does not include the last group voted in, Nobel Peace Prize Winners, Baseball World Series Winners and the environmental crisis facing vultures in Asia.)

The tricky thing for my 'Geo-Biographies' is to be able to locate an actual place related to the person in question or at least where the building was. It's the one great thing about England: I think they gave every building they ever had a name!

Anyway, thanks again for checking out my Phillis Wheatley story!

Thank you, Princess for taking the time to post here...this is really a wonderful addition to the internet information community!
Nice work!