Phillis Wheatley was stolen from Africa as a child and brought to America on the slave ship The Phillis, the source of her first name. Enslaved by the Wheatley family in Boston, she was given their last name but also something rare for the time: an education. By her teenage years, she wrote poetry that gained international attention. Her poetry contemplated freedom, faith, and the contradictions of a new nation fighting for liberty while retaining slavery.

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