{"data":{"description":"Phillis Wheatley was America's first black poet. Born in Senegal, Africa in 1753, she was kidnapped on a slave ship to Boston and sold at the age of seven.","title":"Phillis Wheatley","post_type":"page","content":"\u003ch2 style=\"color: #ad8431;\"\u003ePoet\r\nBorn 1753 — Died December 5, 1784\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ePhillis Wheatley was America's first black poet.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eBorn in Senegal, Africa in 1753, she was kidnapped on a slave ship to Boston and sold at the age of seven to John and Susannah Wheatley of Boston as Mrs. Wheatley's personal servant. Phillis, however, was soon accepted as a member of the family, and was raised and educated with the Wheatley's other two children.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ePhillis became a Boston sensation after she wrote a poem on the death of the evangelical preacher George Whitefield in 1770. Three years later thirty-nine of her poems were published in London as \"Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.\" It was the first book published by a black American.Phillis soon displayed her remarkable talents by learning to read and write English. At the age of twelve she was reading the Greek and Latin classics, and passages from the Bible. At thirteen she wrote her first poem.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIn 1775 she wrote a poem extolling the accomplishments of George Washington and sent it to the commander-in-chief. Washington responded by praising her talents and inviting her to his headquarters.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"/earlyamerica/notable-women/wheatleyport75\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5406 size-thumbnail\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/wheatleyPORT75.jpg\" alt=\"Phillis Wheatley\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003e Phillis Wheatley\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eAfter both of her benefactors died, Phillis was freed as a slave. She married Dr. John Peters in 1778, moved away from Boston and had three children. After an unhappy marriage, she moved back to Boston, only to die in poverty alone in her apartment at the age of 30.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eYears later her \"Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley\" was published in 1834. \"The Letters of Phillis Wheatley, the Negro Slave Poet of Boston\" appeared in 1864.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003carticle class=\"post-560 page type-page status-publish wp-image-borders entry\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"entry-content\"\u003e\r\n\r\nMost of Phillis Wheatley’s poems reflect her religious and classical New England upbringing. Writing in heroic couplets, many of her poems consist of elegies while others stress the theme of Christian salvation.\r\n\r\n\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5448 size-full\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/wheatley.jpg\" alt=\"Phillis Wheatley\" width=\"158\" height=\"215\" /\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhillis Wheatley\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\nAlthough racial equality is not a theme to be found in Phillis Wheatley’s poetry, one allusion of injustice appears in one of her poems which appears below.\r\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\u0026nbsp;\r\n\u003ctable\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eOn Being Brought From Africa To America\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n‘Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,\r\nTaught my beknighted soul to understand\r\nThat there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too:\r\nOnce I redemption neither sought nor knew.\r\nSome view our sable race with scornful eye,\r\n“Their color is a diabolic dye.”\r\nRemember Christians; Negroes, black as Cain,\r\nMay be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.\r\n\r\n—-Phillis Wheatley\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c/table\u003e\r\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/article\u003e","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. 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