and phillis wheatley. do you have other questions, or was that the extent of it that you just asked? >> my questions lead to the quandary of whether -- because the wheatley's were my family, whether they were beneficent in part having contributed to her education, as well as reverend john lothrop, who she lived with later -- and perhaps it is a dichotomy of the two -- whether they were slaveholders in the harshest sense of the word, which i don't believe they were. and of course it kind of gets wound around the identity of my own family in the current era -- how do i look at my forefathers and mothers, and how does their identity as slaveowners, perhaps beneficent slaveowners, reflect on my current family's identity? i think it is churned up by the current black lives movement, and the horrendous treatment of people of color these days. it is kind of wound up in that if that is something that makes sense. prof. lewis: it does. i am not sure the extent to which i can answer, but i will try. my answer i have

she eventually was sold to a family by the name of wheatley in massachusetts. and the daughter in the family taught her to read and write. and she had a real natural talent for writing verse. and, of course, at the time this was an extraordinary development. so much so that there were those that she began publishing pieces in the newspaper and they began to be circulated and was actually a trial held in boston where people like john hancock and other significant figures in the community were brought together to basically put her on trial, ask her questions. broug together to basically put her on trial, ask her questions, to try to determine if it was possible that this african-american woman could have written poetry like this. of course she passed. and they actually wrote a testimonial saying they believed she, in fact, had been the talented writer who produced this b this poetry. in 1773, she travelled to london and this volume was published. it's also remarkable in that we have an engaved image presumably a good physical likeness of phyllis wheatley. this vo

she talks about boston's treatment of slaves, and phillis wheatley's standing in her master's householdthe boston public library and boston literary district cohosted this event. it is about 50 minutes. >> good evening. welcome to the boston public library's commonwealth salon where the presentation -- for the presentation remembering phillis wheatley by barbara lewis.

but it is one of the few examples that have actually come down to us with phyllis wheatley's signature on the volume. and it just doesn't get better than that. you know, trying to find the sort of tangible objects that allow us to discuss the very important contributions of african-americans to the founding period of our nation. it can be a real struggle as a curator to try to find this material. so we are incredibly blessed to have that volume available to us and to share with our visitors once we're open. that will be in that same gallery located next to our visiting tree. reflect on, you know, the contradiction between these calls for liberty and the continued persistence of slavery. couple of other items. these are later bindings of two 18th century publications. of course, at the end of this decade of increasing division between americans and britons over this issue of taxation and representation in the umpire sort of comes to a head in the aftermath of the boston tea party and the coercive acts that are passed by parliament in 1774. and so delegates from all but one of the coloni

>> phyllis wheatley. it was a -- someone turned it up in new england in a box of old books and purchased it, and actually a board member of ours stepped up to helpp acquire it o that we could fill in that part of the story. i mean it is u one of those -- e of those objects that just trembles on the table in front much you when you're standing there. it is amazing. >> joining us from maryland, go ahead, nell. >> caller:ng hello. i wonder how much of your exhibitlo is -- nathaniel greens a favorite of mine. >> thank you for the question. >> n.yes, good question. yes,s, we actually have a considerable amount of attention to the war in the south. of course, as you know after th british abandoned philadelphia in june of 1778, partly because of the french alliance. france finally signs a formal alliance with the united states, allies itself with the revolutionary government and then declares war on britain. so nowar what starts as kind of colonial rebellion that spread to canada, it now becomes a global conflic

we actually see the signature of phyllis wheatley. this is an incredible privilege to be able to display this and share this with our visitors. it's actually on the left a -- an image of her he produced from the frontispiece of that book which gives an idea of what she may have looked like. so this gallery concludes the kind of timeline of events from the boston tea party in december of 1773, through the opening shots of the revolution war in 1775, and we of course explore some of the symbols of the mounting american resistance here. and one of the ones that's a favorite, we've reproduced from a written description this flag that stood on top of a very tall flagpole in tauton, massachusetts, in the fall of 1774. a red emblem, the type of flag that flew over british ships and ports. it has what we would call the union jack today in the upper canton. it's a good reminder that this -- these were not yet people who were fighting for independence. they were not trying to found an independent republic. they were trying to restore their righ

so we actually see the signature of phil s wheatley. and this is an incredible privilege to be able to display this and share this to our visitors. on the left this is actually an image re-created to give us an idea of what she may have looked like. so this gallery concludes with a kind of time line of events from the boston tea party in december of 1773 through the opening shots of the levlutionary war in 1775. and we, of course, explore some of the symbols of the melding american resistance here and one of the favorites of mine we've reproduced from the written inscription this flag that stood on top of this flagpole in ponton, massachusetts. and you can see what was known as a red -- so it flew over british ships and british forts. it's a good reminder that these were not yet people who were fighting for independence. they were not trying to found an independent republic. they were trying to restore their rights within the british empire. and the president of that union on their flags of protests, it says liberty and union on there s

one option is off the table -- now is alan wheatley and anne richards.e is much more uncertainty now than the last one? how unpredictable with the next six months be? >> we're seeing more risk from opportunists. the risk from hamburg is that we get a g-20 which is disunited, unable to send out the positive signal that global investors are hoping for on trade and climate change. i would say it is best to hope for the best -- that president trump is not as unpredictable as he has been. but we should fear that he doesn't send the right signals that markets would like to see about his willingness to turn down the talk on protectionism and embrace the free market, helps thede, that u.s. and the global economy so up. it seems like it is donald trump and resident xi jinping, to deal with north korea or is it more important about russia. ? is the first it time in quite a while that the french-german access has gone back to the strength that it had when eu project was building its momentum. we are back in a situation where you have the sovereign governments of eu