Authors

American · 1784

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American and the first enslaved person to publish a book of poetry. Brought from Senegal or Gambia to Boston at around seven years old, she was purchased by John Wheatley, whose family educated her. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) was published in London after Boston publishers refused it. She was manumitted after publication. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Voltaire all commented on her achievement. She died in poverty at around thirty.