Historical story

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Who was Phillips How might his background have influenced what he wrote about the Middle Passage?

Phillis Wheatley (circa 1753–1784) was a prominent African-American poet. Little is known for certain about her early life, but it is believed she was born in West Africa and enslaved at a young age. She was sold to the Wheatley family of Boston in 1761 and quickly learned to read and write. With the encouragement of the Wheatleys, she began writing poetry and soon gained recognition as a talented poet.

Her background as an enslaved African greatly influenced her writing about the Middle Passage, the forced transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. In her poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America," she reflects on the horrors of the Middle Passage and the suffering of her fellow Africans. She writes:

"'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:

Then I repent of all that I have done,

And mourn that I was born to be undone.'"

Wheatley's poem is a powerful indictment of the slave trade and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Through her writing, she gave voice to the voiceless and helped to bring about a greater awareness of the inhumanity of slavery.

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