Phillis Wheatley (l. c. 1753-1784) was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry and become recognized as a poet, overcoming the prevailing understanding of the time that a Black person was incapable of writing, much less writing poetry and, further, that an enslaved person, considered property, could do so.
More about: Phillis WheatleyDefinition
Timeline
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c. 1753 - 1784Life of Phillis Wheatley, the first African American poet to publish a full-length book.
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1773Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is published.
