Phillis Wheatley Peters is widely recognized as the first African American woman, and only the third American woman, to publish a book of poetry. Born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa, she was captured and brought to America in 1761, where she was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston. The family educated her, and within just 16 months, she was fluent in the Bible, Greek and Latin classics, and British literature. By her teenage years, Wheatley was writing poetry.
Her big break came in 1770 with the publication of “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield,” which gained her national attention. In 1773, with financial backing from the English Countess of Huntingdon, she traveled to London to publish Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first book written by an enslaved Black woman in America. Shortly after, she was emancipated.
Wheatley’s poetry was influenced by famous poets like Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray, and it also reflected her African roots and religious beliefs. She believed in the intellectual abilities of Black people and used her work to challenge the prevailing racial stereotypes. Although she supported the American Revolution, she felt that the nation’s true heroism was undermined by the issue of slavery.
In 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a free Black man, and they had three children, though none survived. Despite efforts, she was unable to publish a second book, and she had to work as a maid in a boardinghouse to support her family. Wheatley continued writing until her death in 1784.
Her legacy endures, with her poems still studied by scholars today, and institutions like the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington, D.C. honoring her contributions to literature and history.
