Person    | Female  Born 1753  Died 5/12/1784

Phillis Wheatley

Categories: Gender Issues, Poetry, Race Issues

Countries: Africa, USA

American writer who was the first African-American author of a published book of poetry.

Her name can also be given as Phillis Wheatley Peters or Phyllis or Wheatly. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the wealthy Wheatley family of Boston. Unusually the family educated her, not just to read and write, but in the classics.

1773 she came to London with her master's son, seeking publication of her work. 'Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral' was published that year by A. Bell, and brought her fame in Britain and the States, and freedom. The Wheatleys emancipated her and when they died shortly after, she married a poor grocer, a free black man, John Peters, lost three children, and died in poverty and obscurity at the age of 31.

An example of her work:
Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic dye."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

September 2023: the New York Times has a very good article about Wheatley, prompted by: "The National Museum of African American History and Culture has purchased a trove relating to Phillis Wheatley, the first American of African descent to publish a book." There we learnt that in 1761 she arrived in Boston "from Africa as a child captive and was sold to a prominent family, the Wheatleys, who named her after the slave ship."

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Phillis Wheatley

Commemorated ati

Phillis Wheatley

On this site in September 1773, A. Bell Booksellers published a volume of poe...

Read More

Other Subjects

Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. Born Annie Wood at 2 Fish Street Hill. Married, aged 19, Frank Besant (brother to Sir Walter) bu...

Person, Gender Issues, Nationalism, Paranormal, Politics & Administration, India, Ireland

4 memorials
Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne

Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne

Political and women's rights activist. Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association. Born Marylebone as Beatrix Maud Gascoyne-Cecil. 1883 married the Liberal politician William Palmer, ...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, South Africa

1 memorial
Nora Maude

Nora Maude

Central Secretary of the Mothers' Union in 1925.  In 1926 was quoted in newspapers as opposed to divorce, supporting a MU decision to deny membership to a divorced woman.

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Eva McLaren

Eva McLaren

Suffragist and leading member of Women’s Liberal Federation. Eva Maria McLaren (née Müller;  was an English suffragist, writer and campaigner. She served as Superintendent of the Franchise departm...

Person, Gender Issues, Chile

1 memorial
Teresa Billington-Greig

Teresa Billington-Greig

School teacher and one of the first paid members of the Women's Social and Political Union. She left  the WSPU - as she considered the leadership too autocratic, and helped create the Women's Freed...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial