Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems. She was born around 1,753 in the west coast of Africa (Senegal- Gambia today). When she seven years old, she was abducted and sold in Boston on July 11, 1761 by John and Susannah Wheatley. However, she was considered another family member, being raised along with the two Wheatley’s children. Phillis demonstrated to have a brilliant intelligence and learned to speak English promptly (Poetry Foundation). The Wheatley’s daughter, Mary, taught her to read and to write. When she was twelve years old, she had already learned Latin and Greek, read classical Greco-Roman literature, studied theology, astronomy, geography, history and English literature, and began writing poems inspired in English Classic Poets like Milton, Pope, and Gray. All these skills were commendable and rare in whites girls, but totally weird and wonderful coming for a black girl. The Wheatleys encouraded her to read her poems during social meetings with friends who were astonished at the intelligence and ingenuity of Phillis (Smith; Reuben; Poetry Foundation).

Phillis Wheatley wrote her first poem when she was thirteen years old which was published in the newspaper "Newport Mercury" in Rhode Island on December 21, 1767. Shortly, she became popular in Boston as a consequence of a poem that she wrote for the death of the preacher George Whitefield in 1770 (Smith). Many white people believed that it was impossible that a black woman had enough intelligence to write poems. As a result, in 1772 a legal process was opened, led by prominent figures to determine the authorship of those verses. They concluded that Phillis was the person who had written those poems, so they agreed to sign the book as witnesses (Reuben).

Religion and morality are at the forefront of her poems, as well as, her childhood memoirs, especially about her mother. All this experiences are evident when she made...