U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Phillis Wheatley etching from 1773

This image of Phillis Wheatley was the frontispiece to her 1773 book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. The writing in the oval frame reads, "Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston." Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa around 1753 before she was enslaved and brought to Boston, so she would have been roughly 20 when the book was published.

See our biography of Phillis Wheatley