Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved Boston poet whose education in English literature, Latin, Greek, the Bible, and history enabled an extraordinary literary career. Her 1773 collection, *Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral*, was the first published volume of poetry by an African American and established her as a major voice in early American letters. Her poems joined classical and Christian traditions with reflections on liberty, faith, and the contradictions of slavery.