Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

Discussion

Phillis Wheatley was born on the West African coast in what is now Gambia and Senegal around 1753. As with many of her people, she was captured by a rival tribe and sold to white slavers. Along with 75 other slaves, the child Phillis, whose new name was taken from the slave ship she traveled on, made the eight-month voyage to Boston. On her arrival in America, the girl was bought at auction by John Wheatley, a well-to-do tailor who needed a servant and companion for his sickly wife, Susannah. At the time, there were 16,000 slaves in ...