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This week I uploaded videos to YouTube and TikTok to highlight the contributions of Phillis Wheatley, the first black American to become a published author. As a writer, I can relate to Phillis and find her story interesting. Her transformation from loyalist to patriot can be seen in her poems.

Brought to America from Africa when she was seven or eight, Phillis was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston a several months after King George III became king in 1760. When she took an interest in learning, the Wheatleys taught her to read and write. Many of the books she read were taught at Harvard. Soon, she was writing obituary poems for distinguished citizens of Boston. Her lyrical talent caught the ear of John Hancock, who was a patron of Mr. Wheatley’s tailor shop. A wealthy politician with a penchant for theatrics—such as his large signature on the Declaration of Independence—in some ways, Hancock was the Donald Trump of the American Revolution.

As a young woman, Wheatley traveled to England in 1773, where a patron arranged for her numerous poems to be published. This event made her the first black American to have her writings published. Wheatley was freed from slavery in the early 1770s.

What stands out to me about Wheatley’s story, is that her poems track her transformation into a patriot. In 1768, she wrote a poem praising King George III but by the autumn of 1775, she wrote a poem about General George Washington and liberty. She sent her poem to Washington at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he commanded the fledgling Continental Army. A number of events led her to change her loyalty from royalty to representation.

The Wheatley family lived on King Street just blocks away from the location of he Boston Massacre in 1770. The Boston Tea Party in 1773, combined with the Battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill in 1775, inspired her to write a new poem about Columbia, the muse of freedom, and George Washington. Impressed with her genius, Washington sent her a letter of thanks and arranged for her poem about freedom to be published in American newspapers.

Here are two of the videos that I posted on YouTube and Tiktok. I hope you enjoy “hearing” from Phillis Wheatley.

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