Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

The West African–born poet spent most of her life enslaved, working for John Wheatley and his wife as a servant in the mid-1700s. Despite never having received a formal education, Wheatley became the first African American to publish a book of poems, Poems on Various Subjects. However, she died before securing a publisher for her second volume of poetry and letters. You can see the monument erected for her at the Boston Women’s Memorial. In early 2023, a University at Albany professor discovered a new Wheatley poem, “On the Death of Love Rotch,” that’s now considered her first full-length elegy.