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    Phillis Wheatley

    American poet

    Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent. On a 1773 trip to London with the Wheatleys' son, seeking publication of her work, Wheatley met prominent people who became her patrons. The publication in London of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Prominent figures, such as George Washington, praised her work. A few years later, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in a poem of his own. Wheatley was emancipated by the Wheatleys shortly after the publication of her book of poems. Wikipedia

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  2. en.wikipedia.org

    Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly (c. 1753 - December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. [2] [3] Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston.
  3. britannica.com

    Jan 20, 2025Phillis Wheatley (born c. 1753, present-day Senegal?, West Africa—died December 5, 1784, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) was the first Black woman to become a poet of note in the United States.. The girl who was to be named Phillis Wheatley was captured in West Africa and taken to Boston by slave traders in 1761. She was enslaved by a tailor, John Wheatley, and his wife, Susanna.
  4. womenshistory.org

    Phillis Wheatley Peters is broadly recognized as the first African American woman and only the third American woman to publish a book of poems. ... Greek and Latin classics, and British literature. She also studied astronomy and geography. In her early teenage years, Wheatley began to write poetry, publishing her first poem in 1767 ...
  5. Phillis Wheatley, The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) Caroline Wigginton, "A Chain of Misattribution: Phillis Wheatley, Mary Whateley, and 'An Elegy on Leaving.'" Early American Literature (2012): 679-84, accessed March 2014.
  6. southern.libguides.com

    Research Guides at Southern Adventist University

    https://southern.libguides.com › colonialamericanlit › wheatley

    Oct 28, 2024--Cedrick May, author of Evangelism and Resistance in the Black Atlantic, 1760-1835 Phillis Wheatley was the first African American to publish a book. Born in Gambia in 1753, she came to America aboard a slave ship, the Phillis. From an early age, Wheatley exhibited a profound gift for verse, publishing her first poem in 1767.
  7. worldhistoryedu.com

    Nov 7, 2024Phillis Wheatley, a pioneering figure in African American literature, remains one of the most significant literary voices of the 18th century. Born around 1753 in West Africa, possibly in modern-day Senegal or Gambia, Wheatley's journey from enslaved child to renowned poet is a powerful story of resilience, intellect, and literary accomplishment.
  8. digital.library.sc.edu

    Phillis Wheatley's (1753-1784) Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773) is the first book published by an African-American author, and the frontispiece portrait of Wheatley is the only surviving work by the African-American slave artist Scipio Moorhead (born ca. 1750). The Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is home to a first edition of the work ...
  9. societyofearlyamericanists.org

    The Work of Phillis Wheatley and An Early African American Literary Tradition Literary scholars typically locate the origins of African American literature in the mid-18th century when those of African descent emerged as writing subjects in British North America. Between 1745 and 1775, we can pinpoint several literary 'firsts.'
  10. Phillis Wheatley and Literary Americanization PHILLIP M. RICHARDS Colgate University THE WRITINGS OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN seen as the beginning of African-American literature. Yet, little atten-tion has been given to the emergence of this new discourse during the 1760s, 1770s, and 1780s, a period in which several social trends

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