The girl who was to become Phillis Wheatley was born on May 8th, 1753 in Gambia, what is now Senegal, West Africa. She was brought to America on a slave ship in 1761 after being kidnapped and bought by John Wheatley, a tailor in Boston. While living with the Wheatley’s, she was taught Theology, Latin, English, Greek, Ancient History, Mythology, and Literature, which all greatly influenced her poetic style and …show more content…
Due to the death of her masters, She left to find a job as a seamstress to support herself. Not only was she an advocate for educating African-Americans because she believed that the color of your skin had nothing to do with how insightful you are, but she also carried herself in an elegant manner both in person and in her work. Although she had financial difficulties, her fame still remained, in fact “In 1776, Wheatley wrote a letter and poem in support of George Washington; he replied with an invitation to visit him in Cambridge, stating that he would be “happy to see a person so favored by the muses.” (Academy of American Poets) Wheatley had been commemorated internationally, but when she died, she died alone in a boarding house on December 5th, 1784. “She was thirty-one years old. Many of the poems for her proposed second volume disappeared and have never been recovered.” (Phillis