An Analysis of Selected Poems of Phillis Wheatley, an African-American Poet, By Toulmin’s Argumentation Theory

In Toulmin's theory of argumentation, each argument may have six components: 1) claim, 2) data, 3) warrant, 4) backings (for the warrant), 5) rebuttal (of the claim), and 6) qualifiers (of the speaker’s certainty), of which the first three are essential and the rest are optional. Based on his theory, this descriptive-analytic research aims to analyze 4 selected poems of the religious/ethical collection of Wheatley (1773) from three aspects: (a) identifying Wheatley’s warrants, (b) categorizing her claims and their grounds, and (c) her tone and certainty. Consequently, the following results were obtained; Wheatley’s claims and recommendations in selected poems were rewritten in simplified language, free from figures of speech, which varied greatly in proportion to the number of selected poems. However, these claims can be categorized under these related fields: (a) individual ethics, (b) governmental-political ethics, and (c) theology. Since most of these claims are prescriptive, Wheatley can be categorized as a deontologist. In addition, supporting the claims, numerous warrants were identified mostly rational and implicitly-asserted.Although she tends to use a conservative voice by resorting to prays, rhetoric questions, exclamations and hyperboles while addressing her recommendations to elites and high-ranked people, she prefers a declarative voice which essentially does not need any qualifiers. In sum, Wheatley has a strong, assertive and consistent voice in the selected poems.