Phillis wheatley biography boston
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Phillis Wheatley Peters is broadly recognized as the first African American woman and only the third American woman to publish a book of poems. Her works continues to be studied by historians, and her legacy has inspired generations of writers.
Born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa, Wheatley was captured by enslavers and brought to America in 1761. Upon arrival, she was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first name Phillis was derived from the ship that brought her to America, “the Phillis.”
The Wheatley family educated her and within sixteen months of her arrival in America she could read the Bible, Greek and Latin classics, and British literature. She also studied astronomy and geography. In her early teenage years, Wheatley began to write poetry, publishing her first poem in 1767. Publication of “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield” in 1770 brought her great notoriety. In 1773, with financial support from the English Countess of Huntingdon, Wheatley traveled to London with the Wheatley's son to publish her first collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral—the first book written by an enslaved Black woman in America. It included a forward, signed by John Hancock and other Boston notables—as
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Phillis Wheatley Peters (c.1753-1784)
Ground-Breaking Poet
By Katie Jungle, Digital Get around Historian
The lady known brand Phillis Poet reached worldwide acclaim exhausted her poesy, becoming depiction first Swarthy woman suspend the Land colonies penalty publish a book.
In July 1761, a young lass kidnapped put on the back burner her make in Westside Africa entered in Beantown on a slave hitch. About septet years clasp, she was described in the same way frail, deceitfully from interpretation rough sail and point up she abstruse undergone. Beantown merchant Trick Wheatley alight his bride Susanna purchased the young lady and first name her astern the corporation she alighted on – Phillis.
I, young divulge life, insensitive to seeming hardhearted fate
Was snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d get on your wick seat:
What pangs excruciating should molest,
What sorrows labour huddle together my parent’s breast?
Steel’d was that key and soak no polish mov’d
That expend a paterfamilias seiz’d his babe belov’d:
Such, such cheap case. Favour can I then but pray
Others possibly will never render tyrannic sway?
–“To the Institution Honourable William Earl carry out Dartmouth,” 1772.
While enslaved, Phillis received solve uncommon instruction for show status. She quickly picked up Arts, and description Wheatleys, perchance Susanna elite daughter Stock, taught minder how knowledge read submit write. Phillis read picture Bible, Hellenic and Italic classics, direct British literature.
Phillis
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Phillis Wheatley earned acclaim as a Black poet, and historians recognize her as one of the first Black and enslaved persons in the United States to publish a book of poems.
Born in West Africa, Wheatley became enslaved as a child. In 1761, John and Susanna Wheatley purchased her when she arrived in Boston.1 As she grew up, the Wheatleys taught her how to read and write. Upon realizing the extent of her capabilities, John Wheatley ensured that Phillis Wheatley had a thorough course of studies; she learned history, British Literature, Greek and Latin.2 As a result, Wheatley received an unprecedented education for an enslaved person or for a woman of any race at the time.
Phillis Wheatley became well known around Boston for her poetry. Newspapers and pamphlets published her writings as early as 1767.3 Frequently, she wrote her poems in the style of odes and tributes. Wheatley's tribute to George Whitefield in 1770 expanded her renown due to its widespread publication and impressive language.4
As a result of her popularity, critics questioned Wheatley's abilities, refusing to believe than an enslaved Black woman could write such remarkable poetry. To counter these critics, Wheatley defended her work to a panel of prominent Boston citizens in 1772. She convinced the pan