“I, who was but a few years ago in the deplorable state of a poor…” — Phillis Wheatley

“I, who was but a few years ago in the deplorable state of a poor African slave, am now numbered among the poets.”

Reflecting on the extraordinary change in her social and literary position · Letter to Samson Occom, 1774

About Phillis Wheatley

c. 1753–5 December 1784

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…

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