Road to Liberty: Phillis Wheatley

Groundbreaking poet Phillis Wheatley is considered the first African American woman, and only the third American woman, to publish a book of poems. Wheatley was renowned for her imagination, drive, and courage. 

Born around 1753 in Africa, she was kidnapped at age seven and enslaved in Boston, Massachusetts, to the Wheatley family in 1761. She was named after the boat that brought her to the colony, “the Phillis.” The Wheatley family educated her, and within a remarkably short period after her arrival, she had a command of the Bible, Greek and Latin classics, British Literature, astronomy and geography. A prodigy, Wheatley grew in notoriety in 1770 after she published “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated George Whitefield.” 

In 1773, she traveled to London and published her first book of poems: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.  The first book published by an African American, its forward was signed by John Hancock and other Boston leaders—but not without first having to prove she was indeed the author because of her race and presumed illiteracy. Shortly after returning to Boston she was emancipated. 

Wheatley embraced the elegy writing style, her African heritage, religion, and the American Revolution—but believed slavery was a roadblock to true freedom. At one point, she sent George Washington a well-received poem after his appointment as Commander of the Continental Army.

In 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a free black man, and despite poverty and discrimination, continued writing. She tried to publish her second book, but failed. Because her husband was imprisoned for debt, Wheatley worked as a maid while continuing to write poetry to provide for her family. She had three children, though none survived. Wheatley died of an illness in 1784 at the age of 31.