Wheatley dedicates her
work to the Earl of Dartmouth, a member of the British aristocracy who she had once met in
London and who was a good friend of a prominent abolitionist. He was also friends with a member
of the clergy who Wheatley also respected greatly, George Whitefield. King George II had
assigned Dartmouth the post of Secretary of State for North America, and his appointment, along
with his sympathies and personal values, likely made her quite optimistic about his leadership
in this role.
In the poem she dedicates to him, Wheatley speaks of his
"blissful sway" and how America will no longer have cause to complain of
"grievance unredress'd" or the "wanton Tyranny" it has experienced from
England before. She calls him "great" and expresses "thanks" on behalf of
the colonists, and she wishes him great success in and fame for his wise and effective
leadership.
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