Answer:
The argument presented by Henry Louis Gate that Phillis Wheatley´s literary works in a period when black African slavery was still quite active, destroys the preconceived bias of enslaving the black African person. The black African man´s intellect was regarded as inferior and incapable of any intellectual capacity, like producing literature.They were said to belong to somewhere between the ape and the civilized human, to justify the enslaving of the black African.
Step-by-step explanation:
In 1767, Phillis Wheatley was just an adolescent when her first works in poetry were published and sold in the streets of Boston. If she could produce poetry then all black Africans had to be recognized as fully human beings thus destroying proposed theory used to justify such inhuman treatment. The proof of her abilities also brought into the limelight and paved way for other black African writers and intellects to express themselves.