Phillis Wheatley: A Poet's Journey to Freedom

Phillis Wheatley Peters was born in West Africa in 1753. At the age of eight, she was kidnapped and enslaved. Phillis's true story will stir your heart. From the plains of Africa to a wharf in Boston, where she was sold into slavery. With brilliance, courage, and faith, she overcame her circumstances to become the founder of African American literature! Her genius showed many early American leaders that slavery is evil. The first African American and one of the first women to publish a book of poetry in the colonies, Wheatley learned to read and write English by the age of nine, familiarizing herself with Latin, Greek, the Bible, and selected classics at an early age.

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             Afua Cooper My Name is Phillis Wheatley