In the following essay, Richmond examines the interaction between George Washington and Phillis Wheatley in the aftermath of her writing "To His Excellency General Washington."

So many visitors came flocking to General Washington's headquarters at Cambridge early in 1776 that one chronicler of the proceedings there chose apologetically not to set down the long list.

"I cannot refrain, however," he interjected, "from noticing the visit of one, who, though a dark child from Africa and a bondwoman, received the most polite attention of the Commander-in-Chief. This was Phillis, a slave of Mr. Wheatley, of Boston . . . She passed half an hour with the Commanderin- Chief, from whom and his officers, she received marked attention."

Having then just attained the age of twentythree, Phillis Wheatley was no child, but she was definitely dark, an African, and a slave, attributes sufficiently unique among Washington's visitors to prompt the chronicler's departure from...