Black Heritage – Part 19

Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American author to publish a book of poetry. Thought to have been born in 1753 in West Africa, she was captured by slave traders as a child, whereupon she was sold to John and Susanna Wheatley of Boston, Massachusetts. She was named Phillis after the slave ship on which she was transported to the Americas and also the surname of her enslavers. The Wheatleys educated her in classics and theology—an unprecedented opportunity for an enslaved person at the time. Her 1773 book – “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” – published in London, made her an international celebrity and a powerful symbol for the abolitionist movement.

Shortly after her book was published, she was emancipated by the Wheatley family. In 1778 she married John Peters, a free Black man. Despite her fame, she spent her final years in extreme poverty, working as a scullery maid. She died in 1784 at age 31.