From chains, freedom's poet

Prince, who is in her 50s, discovered Wheatley while growing up in Georgia. But it was just a few years ago, when the New Hampshire humanities council asked her to perform as Wheatley, that she began seriously studying the slave who rose to become something of a literary celebrity.

"She inspires me," said Prince, who lives in Pembroke.

Born in West Africa, Wheatley was sold in Boston at the age of 7. Her owners, merchant John Wheatley and his wife, Susanna, educated and encouraged Wheatley. A volume of her poetry published in 1773 was the first book published by an African-American writer.

Prince, whose repertoire includes Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, offers information beyond the biography inscribed on the statue of Wheatley: The book was published in London because no printer in Boston would touch it. The publication created quite a sensation -- and Wheatley was freed later that year.

But even after that, her life was difficult, Prince said. She found it hard to earn money as a writer. She married a freed black man and bore three children, each of whom died in infancy. In the sole surviving picture of the poet, she wears a necklace that looks like a shell attached to a homemade black ribbon. Prince does the same.

She takes issue with the criticism that Wheatley's poetry is too hard to understand. Among the poet's works she has taught to schoolchildren is "On Imagination," which includes the stanza:

Imagination! Who can sing thy force?

Or who can describe the swiftness of thy course?

Soaring through air to find the bright abode,

Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,

We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,

And leave the rolling universe behind:

From star to star the mental optics rove,

Measure the skies, and range the realms above,

There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,

Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.

"You can't understand her unless you understand that she became a Christian and was very religious," Prince said. She hopes a video being produced of her performing as Wheatley will acquaint more young people with the poet.

During the American Revolution, Wheatley wrote a poem for George Washington, chief of the Continental Army, and sent it to him. In reply, he invited her to visit him in Cambridge. It's not known if the meeting occurred, but Prince likes to imagine it did, and that the two had a bond. As Wheatley wrote, "I believe that in every human breast God has implanted a principle which we call love of freedom."

The character actor finds it appropriate that the Wheatley statue stands near a statue of Washington.

"It shows us that nothing ends," said Prince. "There's always hope."

"Phillis Wheatley: Make Her Black & Bid Her Sing," a 30-minute video designed as a teaching aid in the classroom, is scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer. The video and guide will be available through dorothyprince.com.