Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley is regarded as the first African American woman and only the third American woman to have published a volume of poetry. Her work was important in overturning the notions that literary culture flowed in only one direction, from Europe to the Americas, and that a woman and enslaved person could not produce poetry of the highest order.

Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped as a child and brought to Boston, where she was bought and enslaved by the Wheatley family, who recognized her talent and educated her. In her teenage years, Wheatley began to write poetry, publishing her first poem in 1767. She earned initial fame for the publication of “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield” in 1770.

In 1773, she traveled with Nathaniel Wheatley to London for the publication of her first book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, and was celebrated by luminaries in the city, including the Lord Mayor of London. The book greatly enhanced her fame both in England and its American colonies and drew the praise of many prominent individuals, including Voltaire and George Washington. Wheatley was emancipated shortly after the publication of her book. She died in poverty and obscurity at the age of thirty-one.