Who was Philis Wheatley?

Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784) was an African woman who was brought to American when she was about seven or eight years old. Within sixteen months she was able to learn the English language and was educated by the family of her Boston master, John Wheatley. She became a published poet who gained considerable status in the society of Boston and London. She later married John Peters and had three children with him. "In 1776 she was received by General Washington" (Perkins 402). She already had one volume of poems published and was working on a second when she died at the age of thirty-one.

Perkins, Barbara and George. The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 402. Print.