Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in 1753 in Senegal/Gambia of West Africa where she was taken from as a child to live a life of slavery. She was captured at the age of seven years old. She was purchased by a wealthy Boston family.
She was known as one of the first African Americans to have a book of poetry published. She was named Phillis by her owner because she was brought to America aboard a ship named Phillis.
Her slave owners taught her to read and write as a child. She wrote her first poem at the age of 13. It was published in Boston, Newport and Rhode Island. At age 18, she had an entire collection of poems her slave owners attempted to have published. They had no luck in the colonies, so they went to Europe.
Yet at the publication of her book, her work was called into question because they did not believe that a person of African descent could be smart enough to write so well. Wheatly found herself before several of the most powerful men in the country being questioned about her writing. These men included Massachusetts Govenor Thomas Hutchinson, John Hancock who would become a significant part of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams and more. The common thought was that Africans were not intelligent enough to do such work.
Phillis would write about important moments in American History like the Boston Massacre. She would correspond with significant figures in history, including George Washington and John Newton.
After the publication of her book, Wheatly was freed from slavery. She would have to find a way to take care of herself because her book was not doing well in the colonies. She would meet a free man of African descent, who was a grocer. She married John Peters. They struggled to take care of themselves, as free former slaves had a difficult time finding work. Peters eventually went to jail for debt. Phillis would die in poverty, but still trying to publish her work. She died in 1784 at the age of 31.
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