Heav'nly Tidings from the Afric Muse

This is an eye-opening biography of Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), who arrived in the US at the age of around seven in 1761 as a slave on a ship where 25 of the 96 passengers died en route. She began writing poetry in her teens, and published her first book at the age of 20. She is called the poet laureate of the American Revolution and was a literary sensation in her day, not only as a black American, but also as a woman. Significantly, a large group of distinguished men had to provide an attestation that she was indeed in the author of these sublime works, especially as racism was rife even among thinkers like Hume and Kant. A judgement by Lord Mansfield in England changed the status of slaves and rippled out into the colonies. Slavery was much less widespread in Boston than in the South. Wheatley was also a pioneer in the emancipation movement and wrote eloquently about freedom. In 2003, statues were unveiled in Boston not only for Phillis but also Abigail Adams and Lucy Stone. As well as learning in detail about the life of this remarkable woman, the reader gains a great deal of background information on this revolutionary epoch.