Phillis Wheatley was born on May 8, 1753 in Senegal. Credited as the first African American woman to be published, she became famous for her 1773 poetry collection, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."
Phillis Wheatley is a member of Poet
💰 Net worth: Under Review
Some Phillis Wheatley images
About
Credited as the first African American woman to be published, she became famous for her 1773 poetry collection, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."
Before Fame
She traveled from her native West Africa to Massachusetts on a slave ship in 1761. She was sold to a family who taught her how to read and write and actively encouraged her literary talent. She was finally emancipated by her former owners, the Wheatleys, in 1778.
Trivia
Many found it hard to believe that she wrote the poems ascribed to her, and she had to defend her authorship in court.
Family Life
She married fellow freed slave, John Peters, in 1778. The couple suffered greatly from both poverty and racism, and just hours after Wheatley's death at the age of thirty-one, her infant son also passed away. She raised two other children.
Associated With
Frederick Douglass was another freed slave who became a famous author.