Famous American Revolutionary Authors: Phillis Wheatley Peters

When you think of authors that were well known while the American Revolution raged across the colonies, you might come up with Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. But I bet you never heard of this one because not only was this author a woman but she was an African American one as well.

By an unidentified artist / Engraving on paper, 1773 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Phillis Wheatley Peters was the first published African American woman poet and one of the earliest published poets in the American colonies. Her life and writing are astonishing because she achieved literary fame despite being a slave for most of her life.

Phillis was born around 1753 in West Africa, most likely what today we know as Senegal or Gambia. In 1761, when she was a young child of seven or eight, she was kidnapped, brought across the Atlantic to Boston and sold into slavery. A family by the name Wheatley purchased her and named her "Phillis" after the slave ship that brought her to American shores. At this time it was popular for slaves to be given the last name of their owners, hence her surname.

Unlike most enslaved people, Phillis was taught to read and write by the Wheatley family. She learned English within the first 16 months she lived in the American colonies. Besides English, she quickly learned the traditional topics taught at this time: Latin, Greek, History, Classical literatuer, and the Bible. When she was 13 she published her first poem. It became very clear that she was remarkably intelligent.

In 1773 London, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published because colonial publishers in America were not keen on printing the work of an enslaved individual. This collection made her known around the world and included poems that contained themes of faith and Christianity, freedom, nature, morality, classical mythology and politics. This broad range of themes further demonstrated her intelligence. Her best known poem is "On Being Brought from Africa to America." The poem is only eight lines long and to this day it generates conversation about religion, race and freedom. It continues to spark discussion about religion, race, and freedom.

Because she was an enslaved black woman, there was doubt that Phillis actually wrote the poems herself. So before her book of poems was published, a group of well-known Boston men examined Wheatley to discern whether she had actually written the poems herself. At the conclusion of their investigation, they signed a statement confirming she was the author.

She later met or exchanged letters with many famous people, including George Washington, who praised one of her poems that honored him during the American Revolution.

Around 1773, not long after the book of poems was published, Phill Wheatley was emancipated. In 1778 she married John Peters - their marriage was not without struggles. They faced terrible financial hardship and three of their children died in infancy. Phillis Wheatley died in poverty in Boston on December 5, 1784, at about age 31.

Her legacy goes beyond being the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry: her writing broke ground in American literature and she was an inspiration for many generations of African American writers and poets. Her work is studied in literature, history, and African American studies classes because it is a great example of both exceptional literary skill and tenacity given the time period she lived.

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture