Phillis Wheatley mastered English in 18 months.
Then Latin. Then Greek.
She was eight years old.
By 12, she was publishing.
She wrote a poem to the British colonial secretary responsible for American affairs. Inside it she told him where her love of freedom came from.
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate / Was snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat.
She folded the poem.
At 20 she crossed the Atlantic to London.
London published her.
Boston would not.
She wrote to her friend Obour Tanner in Newport, Rhode Island. They had been writing to each other for years.
Two Black women and their letters.
since my return to America my Master has at the desire of my friends in England given me my freedom.
1774.
In every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.
Theme: “Bleached and Sold”
Date Published: Friday, April 24, 2026