B Mo’s Black History Month Fact of The Day – Day 12

Today's fact is about Phillis Wheatley.

It is believed that Wheatley was born in 1753 in West Africa. She was sold by a local chief to a visiting trader who took her to Boston in 1761 where she was sold again to wealthy Boston merchant John Wheatley. She was bought to be a servant to Mr. Wheatley's wife Susanna. They named her Phillis after the ship that brought her to Boston.

The reason Phillis is today's Black History Month Fact is because she would be come the first published African American female poet.

As a slave in Boston, the Wheatley family taught her to read and write and encouraged her poetry once they realized how talented she was. It is said that she had mastered the English language by the time she was 16.

She wrote and published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773. This publication brought her a lot of fame in both England and America. George Washington was a fan and praised her work.

Phillis was set free or emancipated soon after the publication of her book and she married in 1778.

She died of illness on December 5, 1784, at the age of 31.

and THAT is B Mo's Black History Month Fact of The Day!