In the autumn of 1773, a slender volume of poetry emerged from a London printing house that would forever alter the landscape of American literature. "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" bore the name of its author on the title page: Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley of Boston. This seemingly simple attribution concealed a profound paradox that would define both the poet's life and her…
“That it was not the small-pox that brought me to America, but I was brought from Africa to America.”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Colonial American Poets, Devotional Poets, Political Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace
Lucian Bottow Watkins lived a life etched in the quiet heroism of ordinary struggle and extraordinary expression. Born into the lingering shadows of American slavery yet propelled by an unquenchable thirst for beauty, knowledge, and justice, he became a soldier-poet whose verses captured the soul of a people awakening to their own power. Though his time on earth spanned only a little over four decades—he was born on…
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Harlem Renaissance, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace
