Christian History Home > Issue 62 > Black Christianity Before the Civil War: A Gallery - The Fruit of Freedom
Black Christianity Before the Civil War: A Gallery - The Fruit of Freedom
When given even a limited opportunity to grow, these African-American Christians blossomed.
Mark Sidwell | posted 4/01/1999 12:00AM
Forgotten Poet
Phillis Wheatley
c.1753-1784
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Savior too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
So wrote the first major black poet in American history and one of the nation's first major female poets, Phillis Wheatley.
She was born in Gambia, West Africa, stolen from her parents at age 7, enslaved, and brought to America. Boston tailor John Wheatley purchased her as a personal servant for his wife, Susannah. Phillis displayed a ready intelligence, learned English quickly, and soon began reading and writing poetry.
The Wheatleys were members of the famed Old South Meeting House in Boston, where Phillis attended church and was baptized at age 18. She achieved some renown with the publication, in England, of her Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral (1773). Though she had been examined by "18 of the most respectable characters in Boston" (to prove that she, a black ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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