Phillis Wheatley in Colonial and Revolutionary Boston

Phillis Wheatley was brought from West Africa to Boston as a child and enslaved by John and Susanna Wheatley. She learned English, Latin and classical literature and began writing verse that circulated among colonial readers.

Because white audiences doubted that an enslaved African woman could have written her poems, prominent Bostonians examined her authorship. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in London in 1773, and Wheatley later corresponded with George Washington before gaining freedom.

Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons fictionalises Wheatley’s life while foregrounding the contradiction between literary recognition and enslavement. It traces the cost of developing an independent voice within a household that encouraged her talent while retaining legal control over her.