Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa, where she was abducted at the age of 7 and sold into slavery in the United States. She learned to read and write and became one of the most well-known poets in the colonies of her time. She began publishing poems at the age of 13 and as a young woman became a symbol for the abolitionist movement. Despite her fame and accomplishments, she died untended and alone.