Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons (27 page)

Bowen, Catherine Drinker.
John Adams and the American Revolution.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1950.

Grzimek, Bernhard.
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975.

Hogendorn, Jan, and Marion Johnson.
The Shell Money of the Slave Trade.
London: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Johnson, Charles.
Middle Passage.
New York: Penguin Books, 1990.

Robinson, William H.
Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings.
New York: Garland Publishing, 1984.

Wheatley, Phillis.
The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley.
Edited by John C. Shields. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

White, Anne Terry.
Human Cargo: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Champaign, Ill.: Garrard Publishing, 1972

1. Describe the conditions on the slaver that carried Phillis to America. What qualities did Phillis possess that helped her survive the treacherous journey?

2. Phillis feels a lot of guilt—about disobeying her mother, about Aunt Cumsee's bout with smallpox, about too readily accepting "Koomi" ways, and about forgiving Americans for enslaving her people. Explain why she feels so guilty about these issues.

3. Describe Phillis's attitude toward Jesus and the Christian faith. Do you think it fair that the Wheatleys forced her to give up her own religious rituals? Why were they so insistent that she give up her own religion?

4. What kinds of feelings inspired Phillis to write her poems?

5. Phillis's life is much different from the lives of Prince, Obour, and many other slaves who desperately sought freedom. What were the advantages and disadvantages of freedom for Phillis?

6. What is Nathaniel's attitude about the slave trade, and why does it change?

7. What do Phillis and George Washington have in common?

8. George Washington gives Phillis this advice: "Love is a mighty pretty thing, but like all delicious things, it is cloying. It is too dainty a thing to live on alone, and ought not to be considered more than a necessary ingredient for that happiness that results from a combination of causes." How does it apply to Phillis's life?

A
NN
R
INALDI
is an award-winning author best known for her skill at bringing history vividly to life. A self-made writer, Ms. Rinaldi never attended college but learned her craft through reading and writing. As a columnist for twenty-one years at
The Trentonian
in New Jersey, she learned the art of finding a good story, capturing it in words, and meeting a deadline.

Ms. Rinaldi attributes her interest in history to her son, who enlisted her to take part in historical reenactments up and down the East Coast, where she cooked the food, made the clothing, and learned about the dances, songs, and lifestyles that prevailed in eighteenth-century America.

Ann Rinaldi lives with her husband in central New Jersey.