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Essay On Phillis Wheatley

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Phillis Wheatley was sold into slavery when she was only 7 years old and sent to North America. She was purchased by a family in Boston—they then taught her how to read and write (Wikipedia, 2016). When she learned how to read, her writing thrived. The Wheatley’s saw that, and continued to encourage to continue on with learning and writing the poems. The people of Boston did not want to support an African-American poet, so Phillis sent her writings to a publisher in London (Poetry Foundation, 2016).
Around the age of 13, Phillis published her first poem. Phillis was the first African-American female poet in history. By the time she turned 18, she had a total of 28 poems wrote. Mrs. Wheatley helped her run advertisements and helped her promote these poems. She had much success with that, she had many other good ones that followed. In 1773, her book called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published (Biography.com).
George Washington was one of many that was impressed with her work. During this time period, the writings were focused mostly on freedom. This was at the same time of the Revolutionary war against Britain. When he was appointed commander in 1775, she sent him a ode in his honor. It spoke a lot of …show more content…

She told people that the power of poetry ‘was immeasurable.’ She used writing as an escape and also a way to express herself. John C. Shields quoted, “Wheatley had more in mind than simple conformity. It will be shown later that her allusions to the sun god and to the goddess of the morn, always appearing as they do here in close association with her quest for poetic inspiration, are of central importance to her." There were a lot of people that at first did not accept her as a poet. She was still a slave in their eyes. People didn’t feel that they should support her because of that. People believe that Phillis wrote over 100 poems during her short life. The last 30 though, have not been

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