A biography of Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was one of many famous poets in Early America. She was born around 1753 in Senegal, West Africa. Around the age of seven or eight she was kidnapped and sold into slavery. She was too young to be sold in the West Indies or the southern colonies. John Wheatley, Prominent Boston tailor, bought her.

John Wheatley recognized her talents for learning and encouraged her learning. Although she was originally bought to be a servant and an attendant to Mrs. Wheatley, Phillis was soon accepted as a member of the family, and was raised with the Wheatley’s two other children. She was given the privileges to learn to read and write. Phillis learned English with remarkable speed, and, although she never attended a formal school, she also learned Greek and Latin. Around age twelve she was reading Greek and Latin classics; also reading passages from the Bible.

Phillis was soon on her way to writing

Her rare gifts were cultivated from her learning of Christianity. Milton, Pope, and Gray, three English poets also influenced Phillis. Around 1776 a poem was published and dedicated to George Washington brought her further acclaim. When the Wheatley's returned to Boston, John Wheatley freed Phillis. She stayed with the Wheatley’s and cared for them until their declining years.

Her poetry, largely dealt with morality and piety. Her poems were reissued in the 1830s by Abolitionists to prove human potential from and of blacks. Her deeply moving verse stood against the institution of slavery. It would be about a hundred years before another black writer would drop the mask of convention and write about African- American experience. Future generations would pick up where she left off. Phillis Wheatley Peters was truly one of many famous black African Americans to be an author and a poet.

John Peters failed in business and apparently also fail

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