"Lasky shows not only the facts of Wheatley's life but also the pain
of being an accomplished black woman in a segregated world." --
Booklist
In 1761, a young girl was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston, who
named her Phillis after the slave schooner that had carried her.
Kidnapped from her home in Africa and shipped to America, she'd had
everything taken from her-her family, her name, and her language. But
Phillis had a passion to learn. Amid the tumult of the Revolutionary
War, Phillis Wheatley became a poet and ultimately had a book of verse
published, establishing herself as the first African- American woman
poet this country had ever known.
Back matter includes an author's note, an illustrator's note, sources,
and an index.