1. Phillis Wheatley 1753-1784

2. Known as the 1 st African American poet. Was stolen from her home in West Africa when she was 7 or 8 years old. Arrived in America onboard a slaveship in 1761. She spoke no English.

3. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston to assist Mrs. Susanna Wheatley. She was treated kindly by the Wheatleys. Because she was so bright, the Wheatleys provided her with an excellent education.

4. Had her 1 st poems published when she was barely 13. Susanna Wheatley arranged for a volume of Phillis’s poems to be published in London in 1773. The book was called Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral.

5. Around this time, the Wheatleys gave Phillis her freedom, but she chose to stay with them. After they died, she married John Peters, a freeman, in 1778. They had three children, but none survived. John had trouble finding work and was eventually put in prison over a debt.

6. Phillis got sick herself and died in her early thirties—poor, alone and without publishing another book of poems.