Phillis Wheatley - Woman of Letters

Phillis Wheatley accomplished what many women in her day could not; she published a book of her own poems. This is a remarkable feat on its own, but consider this, she was a slave from Gambia.

Wheatley was one of 7 or 8 children sold to John & Susannah Wheatley in Boston, MA. Phillis got her name from the slave ship that carried her to America, The Phillis. It was highly unusual for slaves to even know how to read or write, let alone accomplish writing poetry and verse. Her gift for poetry was encouraged by her owners, and their daughter Mary. At the age of 12, her first poem On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin, was published.

She was fond of writing poetry in the elegiac style. Many historians believe that her roots in the tradition of oration within her African tribe made her preferential to this style. Over time, Phillis popularity grew both in the colonies and in England. Her popularity was her ticket to freedom and she was released from the bonds of slavery in 1773. She felt slavery to be the issue which separated whites from true greatness: whites can not "hope to find/Deivine acceptance with th' Almighty mind" when "they disgrace/And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race."

Today Phillis Wheatley is remembered for the following feats;

- First African American to publish a book
- An accomplished African American woman of letters
- First African American woman to earn a living from her writing
- First woman writer encouraged and financed by a group of women (Mrs. Wheatley, Mary Wheatly, and Selina Hastings.)