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Phillis Wheatley was a slave and poet. She was brought to America from Africa July 11, 1761 aboard the slave ship Phillis. She was sold to John Wheatley, who bought her as a servant for his wife, and was probably named for the ship that transported her to America. Phillis Wheatley was given a lot of freedom by her masters. One of the Wheatleys' daughters taught her how to read and write. Her first published poem appeared in 1767, when she was about fourteen. Wheatley gained international fame in 1770 when her poem "On the Death of the Rev. George Whitefield" was published in London. Her first book of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in London in 1773 (Shields). In late 1775, she wrote a poem about George Washington and sent it to him. Early in 1776, she received a reply from Washington that included an invitation to visit him whenever she wished (Nell). She married John Peters in 1778. Phillis Wheatley died on December 5, 1784, poverty-stricken and virtually forgotten. Her book of poems was first published in America in Philadelphia in 1786 (Shields).
Wheatley's poems covered many subjects. One of her poems, "Niobe in Distress for Her Children Slain by Apollo, From Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book IV and From a View of the Painting of Mr. Richard Wilson," deals with Greek mythology. Interestingly, another is addressed to a woman in North Carolina who had weathered a hurricane (Mason). The variety of her poems may be one of the reasons Wheatley's poems are still popular today.
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