PHILLIS WHEATLEY PETERS ~ A Voice Enslavement Could Not Silence.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY PETERS ~ A Voice Enslavement Could Not Silence. 

Born around 1753 in West Africa—most likely in the Senegambia region—Phillis Wheatley Peters was kidnapped as a young child and forced across the Atlantic aboard the slave ship Phillis.

She arrived in Boston in 1761, approximately seven or eight years old, and was purchased by John and Susanna Wheatley. She was given the name Phillis after the ship that carried her and the surname Wheatley after the family that enslaved her.

Although English was not her first language, Phillis quickly learned to read and write. She studied the Bible, English literature, history, Latin and Greek. While still a young teenager, she began writing and publishing poetry that demonstrated extraordinary intelligence, spiritual depth and literary brilliance.

Many white colonists refused to believe that an enslaved Black girl could have written such remarkable work. In 1772, Phillis was examined by a group of prominent Boston men, including John Hancock and Governor Thomas Hutchinson. After questioning her, they signed a statement confirming that the poems were truly her own.

Her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in London on September 1, 1773. It became the first published volume of poetry written by an African American and made Phillis Wheatley Peters one of the most important literary pioneers in American history.

She endured kidnapping, enslavement, racism, disbelief, poverty and loss—but none of those forces could silence her voice.

Phillis Wheatley Peters was more than an enslaved woman who learned to write.

She was a poet.
She was a pioneer.
She was living proof that chains could restrain her body—but they could never imprison her mind.

Her words crossed an ocean, challenged a nation and earned her a lasting place in history.