Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

Published in London in 1773, this collection of thirty-nine poems made Phillis Wheatley the first African American woman to appear in print as a poet. Kidnapped from West Africa as a child and enslaved in Boston, she learned to read Latin and English and composed elegant verse in the neoclassical style of her age, drawing on scripture, classical mythology, and the public events of colonial America. Because so many doubted that an enslaved young woman could write such lines, a panel of prominent Bostonians examined her before the book could be published, and their signed attestation appears in its pages. The poems remain a landmark of American letters and a quiet argument for the humanity its era denied. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.