Phillis Wheatley
Presented by: Allison Hoinville
Early Years
• Phillis was born in 1753 in Senegal, Africa.
• When she was 8 years old, she was kidnapped and taken to Boston
Massachusetts.
• There were about 230,000 other African Americans that were kidnapped
and shipped to the United States in total.
• Phillis got her name from the slave ship she was on “Phyllis”.
• She was bought by a wealthy merchant named John Wheatley.
• John and his wife Susanna educated her and treated her like a member of
the family.
• She and Mary (the Wheatley’s daughter) were tutored by the Wheatley’s
son Nathaniel.
More Early Years
• The Wheatley’s treated Phillis with respect
because they admired George Whitefield.
• Phillis went to church a lot and had a strong
belief in God.
• English was Phillis’ second language. Her first
language was
Middle Years
• Susanna sent Phillis on a voyage with Nathaniel to
England because the doctor said it would help cure
Phillis’ disease.
• Phillis wrote a poem about church and God.
• Mr. Wheatley joined the war.
• Phillis’s poems started being in the news.
• At age 17 she was baptized.
• Her first poem book was published on Sep. 1st 1773.
• She was freed from slavery in 1773
More Middle Years
• Phillis had to go back home from England
early because Susanna Wheatley was very
sick.
• In 1774 Susanna died.
• In 1778 John Wheatley died.
• In 1778 Mary Wheatley died.
• Phillis started writing poems because she
admired Alexander Pope.
Later Years
• She met General George Washington at a poetry reading in 1776.
• She was a strong supporter of independence during the
Revolutionary war.
• Phillis married a free black grocer named John Peters
• They had three children. The first two died. When she had her
third child 1784, she died and, a few hours later, her baby died.
• Her husband had too much debt to pay. So, he was put in debtor's
jail. To get out Jail, he had to sell some of Phillis’ things.
• At the time of her death, there was a second volume of her poems,
but no publishers wanted to publish the poems.
• After she died, they made a holiday celebrating her on February 1st.
How Slaves were treated
• She was treated with respect.
• The slaves that lived around her were treated
very poorly.
• The slaves in Africa were treated very badly
because Americans came to Africa and
kidnapped a bunch of African Americans then
shipped them to America.
Thanks
• Thank you all for watching my Power Point!!!!