By Safire R. Sostre ·Updated May 8, 2023
Phillis Wheatley was a well-known poet and literary sensation during the 18th century.
Born in May 1753, she was kidnapped from Gambia, West Africa at about the age of 7 and brought to Boston, Massachusetts, where she was then purchased as a domestic servant by the family of John Wheatley, a prominent Boston merchant. Her first name was derived from the ship, “the
