Phillis Wheatley: The Senegambian Slave-Turned-Poet
Phillis Wheatley was captured and shipped across the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean at age 7. The Senegambian young girl was purchased at a Boston auction in 1761 by John Wheatley for his wife Susanna. Her birth name is unknown to us, as the little girl was given the name of the slave vessel that tore her away from everything she’d ever known. A Genius in Bondage Phillis soon demonstrated such a capacity for languages that she could read fluent English by age 9. What’s more, she read and translated Greek and Latin classics by age 10. As a...