Early Life
The family that purchased her and taught her to read and write
Who are the Wheatley family
Wheatley’s poems often focused on this religion
What is Christianity?
Wheatley believed that all people were equal before this.
What is God?
Wheatley was the first African American woman to do this.
What is publish a book of poetry?
Wheatley’s work was celebrated by these early activists.
Who are abolitionists?
She was kidnapped from this continent as a child
What is Africa
Wheatley subtly challenged this institution through her poetry, though carefully.
What is slavery?
Wheatley often expressed that her faith was not only personal but also a way to show this moral truth to others
What is that all humans have equal worth in the eyes of God?
Her poetry challenged these common 18th-century beliefs about African Americans.
What are racist assumptions or beliefs of intellectual inferiority?
Her success as a writer proved that enslaved people were capable of this, challenging racist stereotypes.
What is Intellectual and creative achievement?
The city in the American colonies where she was brought and raised by the Wheatley family.
What is Boston?
Wheatley celebrated this aspect of life through learning and classical knowledge.
What is education or knowledge?
Her faith gave her this, helping her endure hardship and oppression.
What is strength or hope?
Wheatley’s life and work linked African American intellectual achievement to discussions about this concept.
What is freedom or equality?
Today, Wheatley is recognized as a pioneering figure in this area of literature.
What is African American or Black literature?
The approximate year Phillis Wheatley was born
1753
She connected ideas of freedom in her poems to this historical event.
What is the American Revolution?
Wheatley used her writing to demonstrate her intellectual and spiritual depth, challenging assumptions about this group.
Who are enslaved Africans?
Today, she inspires future generations of this group of people.
Who are Black writers, activists, and thinkers?
Her poetry continues to be studied in schools today for its insight into these two major themes of early American life
What are faith and freedom?
The name of the ship that brought her to America
What is The Phillis?
What were the languages that Wheatley learned in her youth.
What is Greek, English, and latin
Her poetry reflects a balance between her faith, her African heritage, and her new life in this country.
What is America?
Wheatley’s work helped shape early American literature and this broader cultural movement.
What is African American literary history or Black literature?
Wheatley’s life serves as a symbol of these two qualities in the face of oppression.
What are resilience and intellect?