PhillisWheatley

First African American writer to publish a book

First African American to receive international reputation as a writer

Born in West Africa and enslaved in Massachusetts

Biographical Details

Her ability to write in English shocked audiences

Even most forward thinking Europeans and Americans assumed that black Africans and African Americans were incapable of producing art or literature

This attitude towards blacks helped support slavery as an institution

Significance

In 1772, Wheatley was put on trial and had to prove she was a poet.

18 of the most influential men of the Massachusetts Colony assembled to verify the authorship of her poems.

The question was much bigger than Wheatley: Was a black person capable of producing literature?

The Trial