African American Biography

Khalia Thompson
English 1
Biography

Phillis Wheatley was a famous African American slave born in Africa most likely in Senegal in the early 1750s. Phillis was kidnapped at age five or six and taken to Boston in a salve ship. In 1761 Phillis was sold to John Wheatley who was a merchant. Philis was a favorite out of the slaves and was allowed to learn to read & write in 1761 is when she began writing.

Phillis is famously known for her poem” On the Death of their Reverend Mr. George Whitefield was published in 1770. Granted her freedom in 1773 the Wheatlys sent Phillis to London to recieve medical care. There she met Benjamin Franklin & other notable figures. In London she began known as “ Sable Muse”. While in London she published “ Poems on various subjects, and Religious and Mural”. She returned to Boston in 1773. During the pre-Revolutionary period she wrote poems and supporting the American cause her famous poem to George Washington not her invite to visit him at the Continental army Camp. In 1778 she married a free black. Her luck began to incline. One of her jobs was cleaning a lodging house. Two of her three children died. She died later that year. She is also famously known for her poem “One being brought from Africa to America.”

Did Phillis Wheatly really write for the whites or was it the black struggle in converted form? This is a topic many have touched upon. Phillis thought was treated good was still a slave. Many whites beloved her to be a faithful & good servant. Though don’t you see her pain & disbeleaf of being a slave in her poems? Its impact today is now historians can see the feelings of a slave and try to analyze why she felt that way. Even through many whites didn’t understanding they were blind to the truth. Phillis made a good life on the outside but a bad emotional life inside. Her heartbreak & pain caused her to die at a young age.