Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), poet, born in Africa. As a child she was enslaved and purchased by John Wheatley, merchant tailor, of Boston, Massachusetts. At age 17, her broadside "On the Death of the Reverend George Whitefield," was published in Boston. In 1773, her only book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, containing thirty-eight poems, was published in London. The copybook contains unattributed and attributed verse including poetry published in newspapers and magazines and poetry attributed to William Shakespeare, John Dryden, Peter Motteaux, William Pinkington, and Jonathan Swift.