Born around 1753 in West Africa, Phyllis Wheatley was sold as a slave in Boston to John and Susanna Wheatley in 1761. Susanna quickly noticed that Phyllis was extremely smart. The family taught her to read and write. She studied history, religion, and even Greek and Latin. She began writing poetry in 1767 and published An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield, three years later, which brought her great notoriety. Because the colonists had trouble believing that a young slave had written poetry, she had to go to court, where she was examined by a group of Boston luminaries, including John Erving, Reverend Charles Chauncey, John Hancock, Thomas Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts, and his lieutenant governor, Andrew Oliver. They concluded she had written the poems ascribed to her and signed an attestation, which was included in the preface of her book of collected works: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, published in London in 1773.
She travelled to London with Nathaniel Wheatley in 1773, who arranged a meeting with Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntington, who became her patron. No one could believe that a slave had written the poetry, so Many colonists found it difficult to believe that an African slave was writing "excellent" poetry. Wheatley had to defend the authorship of her poetry in court in 1772. She was examined by a group of Boston luminaries. Publishers in Boston had declined to publish it, but her work was of great interest to influential people in London. She received her freedom in 1774. After returning home, the Wheatleys died. She married a free man, lost 3 children, and had to take a job as a maid. She died at 31. She is the first black woman to publish a book.
