America 250 in Color: Phillis Wheatley (1753 – 1784)
By Charles Ray and Dr. Carlton McLellan - February 23, 2026
Defying the prevailing belief that a Black person was incapable of writing anything, much less poetry, Phillis Wheatley (c.1753 – 1784), brought to Boston aboard the slave ship Phillis in July 1761 and purchased by John Wheatley, a wealthy Boston merchant, was the first Black author to publish a full length book of poetry, with her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773. Little is known about her background or the name she was given at birth. She’s believed to have been born circa 1753 in what is now Gambia or Senegal. She was named after the ship on which she was brought to America.
Although enslaved, young Phillis was treated as a member of the Wheatley family, given light domestic work, and Mary Wheatley, the 18-year-old daughter of John Wheatley, taught her to read and write. A fast learner, by the time she was about 12 years old, she was proficient in Greek, Latin, and the Bible, and at 14, she published her first poem.
Progressive members of Boston society—despite being enslavers—the Wheatleys recognized her intelligence and encouraged her education. She was frequently invited to dinner parties at the Wheatley home, where she read her latest works, which were highly praised.
Phillis had a book-length manuscript of her poems by 1773, and Wheatley’s wife, Susanna, sent her with Mary’s twin brother, Nathaniel, on a family business trip to London, where she felt there would be a better chance of finding a publisher than was available in Massachusetts Colony. In London, she was introduced to high society and became an immediate hit. Her book was published on September 1, 1773.
Upon her return to Boston, the Wheatleys set her free, but Susanna Wheatley was seriously ill, and Phillis remained with the family to care for her until Susanna’s death in the spring of 1774. John Wheatley died in 1778, followed soon by Mary. Nathaniel moved to London to manage the family business, leaving Phillis alone in Boston.
She worked as a domestic until she met and married a free Black grocer, John Peters. They lived in poverty and had two children who died in infancy. When his business failed, and he was unable to pay his debts, Peters was sent to prison in 1784. Phillis was left alone once again, this time with a third infant. She was eventually able to find work as a scullery maid, but developed pneumonia, and on December 5, 1784, she and her infant daughter died.
Phillis Wheatley’s life was filled with bittersweet tragedy and triumph. Her book was widely praised in England and the American colonies. She received a personal thank-you note from General George Washington for a poem she wrote in his honor in 1775, which Thomas Paine later published in the Pennsylvania Gazette. There were some, though, like Thomas Jefferson, who dismissed her as simply a mimic who was capable only of copying concepts she’d absorbed from white classical writers.
Alternately lauded and lambasted during her short life, she is currently regarded as one of America’s greatest poets, honored with place names, memorials, and educational institutions.
This is story number 3 of the 25 in this series