Editing Phillis Wheatley (section)

==Early life==
[[Image:Old South Meetinghouse BW.jpg|thumb|Phillis Wheatley's church, [[Old South Meeting House]]<ref name=cromwell-1994>{{Citation |publisher = University of Arkansas Press |title = The Other Brahmins: Boston's Black Upper Class, 1750–1950 |first = Adelaide M. |last = Cromwell |author-link = Adelaide M. Cromwell |date = 1994 |ol= 1430545M }}</ref>]]
Although the date and place of her birth are not documented, scholars believe that Wheatley was born in 1753 in [[West Africa]], most likely in present-day [[Gambia]] or [[Senegal]].<ref>Carretta, Vincent. ''Complete Writings by Phillis Wheatley,'' New York: Penguin Books, 2001.</ref> She was sold by a local chief to a visiting trader, who took her to Boston in the then British [[Colony of Massachusetts]], on July 11, 1761,<ref>Odell, Margaretta M. ''Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave,'' Boston: Geo. W. Light, 1834.</ref> on a [[slave ship]] called ''The Phillis''.<ref name=Doak>Doak, Robin S. ''Phillis Wheatley: Slave and Poet,'' Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2007.{{ISBN?}}</ref> The vessel was owned by Timothy Fitch and captained by Peter Gwinn.<ref name=Doak />

On arrival in Boston, Wheatley was bought by the wealthy Boston merchant and tailor John Wheatley as a slave for his wife Susanna. The Wheatleys named her Phillis, after the ship that had transported her to North America. She was given their last name of Wheatley, as was a common custom if any surname was used for enslaved people.<ref>{{cite journal
|journal=[[American Archivist]]
|title=A Perspective on Indexing Slaves' Names
|first=David E.
|last=Paterson
|volume=64
|date=Spring–Summer 2001
|pages=132–142|doi=10.17723/aarc.64.1.th18g8t6282h4283
|doi-access=free
}}</ref>

The Wheatleys' 18-year-old daughter, Mary, was Phillis's first tutor in reading and writing. Their son, Nathaniel, also tutored her. John Wheatley was known as a progressive throughout New England; his family afforded Phillis an unprecedented education for an enslaved person, and one unusual for a woman of any race at the time. By the age of 12, Phillis was reading Greek and Latin classics in their original languages, as well as difficult passages from the Bible.<ref>See Barbara Salmon, ''In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America'' (1985), p.5, and "Phillis Wheatley, in ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phillis-Wheaatley.</ref> At the age of 14, she wrote her first poem, "To the University of Cambridge [Harvard], in New England".<ref name=Brown>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Sterling |author-link1=Sterling Allen Brown |title=Negro Poetry and Drama|date=1937|publisher=Westphalia Press|location=Washington, DC|isbn=1935907549}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral|last = Wheatley|first = Phillis|publisher = W.H. Lawrence|year = 1887|location = Denver, Colorado|pages = [https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea_0/page/120 120]|url = https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea_0|access-date = February 29, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161115224718/https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea_0|archive-date = November 15, 2016|url-status = live}}</ref>

Recognizing her literary ability, the Wheatley family supported Phillis's education and left household labor to their other domestic enslaved workers. The Wheatleys often exhibited Phillis's abilities to friends and family. Strongly influenced by her readings of the works of [[Alexander Pope]], [[John Milton]], [[Homer]], [[Horace]] and [[Virgil]], Phillis began to write poetry.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Deborah|title=Freedom on My Mind|date=2015|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|location=Boston/New York|isbn=978-0-312-64883-1|page=145}}</ref>