Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

Phillis Wheatley exhibited a precocious talent for languages and literature as a teenager, and published her poems in New England newspapers and broadsides. This is the first edition of her only book, published when Wheatley was barely 20. Her poems are prefaced with a testimonial signed by prominent men, authorizing the poet’s literary abilities and her status as an African-American slave. Scipio Moorhead, another slave of African descent, created the only surviving portrait of Wheatley, which was used for the frontispiece. Though chiefly religious in nature, Wheatley’s writings also expressed empathy with the Colonists’ struggle for freedom, though not without gently remarking upon its hypocrisy: How well the Cry for Liberty, and the reverse Disposition for the exercise of oppressive Power over others agree—I humbly think it does not require the Penetration of a Philosopher to determine. The book was not published in America until two years after her death.

Phillis Wheatley (ca.1754–1784). Poems on various subjects, religious and moral, by Phillis Wheatley, negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England.</<a>i> London: For A. Bell, 1773. PML 77263