American poet, born in New York City on the 21st of January 1752. He was of French descent, and was graduated at Princeton in 1771. In 1776 he visited the West Indies, and in 1778 went to the Bermuda Islands. In 1780, during the war of the Revolution, he again sailed for the West Indies, when he was captured by a British cruiser. After the return of peace, Freneau became, in succession, editor of a newspaper and captain of a ship that plied between New York, the West Indies and the Southern states. He contributed to the United States Magazine and the Freeman’s Journal, and in 1790 became editor of the New York Daily Advertiser. Later he was appointed translator for the State Department, and at the same time assumed the editorship of the National Gazette. He next became editor of the Jersey Chronicle, and in 1797 of the New York Time-piece and Literary Companion; but his connection with this paper was brief. Freneau published A Poem on the Rising Glory of America (1771); Voyage to Boston (1774); General Gage’s Confession (1775); The British Prison-Ship (1781); The Poems of Philip Freneau, Written Chiefly During the Late War (1786); A Journey from Philadelphia to New York, by Robert Slender, Stocking-Weaver (1787); The Miscellaneous Works of Mr. Philip Freneau (1788); The Village Merchant (1794); Poems Written between the Years 1668 and 1794 (1795); Letters on Various Interesting and Important Subjects, by Robert Slender (1799); Poems Written and Published During the American Revolutionary War (1809); A Collection of Poems on American Affairs (1815); and a translation of Abbé Robin’s Voyages and Travels (1783). He died near Freehold, NJ, on the 18th of December 1832. See also Literary Criticism.
