Person · c. 1753–1784
Phillis Wheatley
Also known as Phillis Wheatley Peters
A West African-born poet brought enslaved to Boston as a child, internationally published in 1773, emancipated soon afterward, and an incisive participant in Atlantic debates over Christianity, liberty, and slavery.
Why this person matters
Wheatley was not merely evidence of Patriot hypocrisy. She was an author who appropriated and transformed the era’s religious, classical, and political languages.
Principal contributions
- Published the first book by an African American woman
- Linked spiritual and civil liberty in public correspondence
- Made Black authorship impossible for the revolutionary public to dismiss
Role in the episode arc
A central documentary voice for authorship, enslavement, emancipation, and the meanings of liberty.
Editorial note
Use Phillis Wheatley as the public display name followed by the film and most scholarship; retain Phillis Wheatley Peters for search and later-life context.