Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Why did Phillis Wheatley disappear?

Very recommendable! The purchasers of this teenage slave, the presumably white Wheatley family of Boston, taught her how to read and write and encouraged her talent for poetry! 

"On a 1773 trip to London with her master's son, seeking publication of her work, Wheatley met prominent people who became patrons. The publication in London of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Figures such as George Washington praised her work. A few years later, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in a poem of his own.
Wheatley was emancipated by her masters shortly after the publication of her book. ..." (Source)

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