Phillis Wheatley and the Music of Freedom

On November 7, 1775, Lord Dunmore signed his Proclamation, which promised freedom to all enslaved persons who joined the British army to fight the rebels. Hundreds rushed to take up arms. Nevertheless, many enslaved servants were loyal to the Patriot cause. One such devout Patriot was poet and enslaved servant Phillis Wheatley. Her devotion to the goals of the Revolution did not come lightly. Enslaved servants had a difficult choice to make – sympathy for the Patriot cause, or their freedom? Wheatley’s choice never dulled her yearning for freedom, however, and she called out the hypocrisy of crying “Liberty!” while keeping hundreds of thousands of Americans enslaved. The Governor’s Musick explores this hypocrisy, juxtaposing Wheatley’s writings with liberty-themed music written by the great George Frederic Handel, himself an investor in the slave trade.