We Celebrate:

   Phyllis Wheatley - The first African American to be published.

September 1, 1773

Phyllis Wheatley was only seven or eight years old when she was captured and taken from her home in West Africa. A slave ship brought her to Boston in 1761. Knowing nothing of the talents she would soon show the world, John Wheatley, a prosperous tailor, and his wife, Susannah, purchased the young girl directly from the ship and named her Phyllis Wheatley.
Wheatley grew up to be a poet. Her collection, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published on September 1, 1773. How did she become the first African American writer to be published, when most slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write? 


One day, the Wheatleys saw Phyllis writing on a wall with chalk. Rather than punish her, the Wheatleys encouraged her to learn. Their daughter tutored her in reading and writing. Wheatley also studied English literature, Latin, and the Bible, but what she did best was to write poetry. Her first poem was published in the Newport Mercury newspaper in 1767.
Six years later, in the service of the Wheatley family, Phyllis Wheatley sailed to London where she met Selina Hasting, the Countess of Huntingdon. The Countess helped Wheatley publish a volume of her poetry in 1773. Wheatley had another surprise waiting for her back in America.

Soon after she returned home, Wheatley was given her freedom. As a free woman, she published both an antislavery letter and a poem to George Washington, whom she had met. Washington wrote to Wheatley, thanking her and praising her "great poetical Talents."
Phyllis Wheatley married John Peters, a free black man, in 1778 and published three more poems. Her husband, however, was not as successful in business. Wheatley became a servant later on in her life, and when she died, she was very poor. Although she died poor, she died a free woman. 

P.W. Engraving: Credit: Engraving attributed to Moorhead, Scipio. "Frontispiece and Title Page from Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral." 1773. American Treasures of the Library of Congress. 


A page in Wheatley's collection of poems, verifying that she is the author 
Credit: Wheatley, Phyllis. "Interior page from Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral." 1773. Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection, American Treasures of the Library of Congress. 

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