Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 – December 5, 1784) was a poet. She was the first African-American person to have a book published. She was born in West Africa. However it is not known which country she was born in. It was Senegal or The Gambia. She took work as a slave in the United States when she was about seven years old on a slave ship called The Phillis. Her master and his wife taught her how to read and write. Wheatley wrote her first published poem when she was 13. She wrote over 100 poems in her life and at least 30 had lost.Although she was an African slave, Phillis Wheatley was one of the best-known poets in America. In 1770 Wheatley wrote a poetic tribute to the evangelist George Whitefield. A lot of people said good things about the poem. In 1773 a collection of 39 poems Wheatley had written, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley..." It was the first writings by an African American woman to publish in public. The book made her famous in England and the American colonies. There was a poem in the book about slave trader brought people from Africa to America. Other than this Wheatley did not write much poetry about slavery. Wheatley's mistress Mrs. Wheatley died on October 18, 1773. At this point Wheatley did not have to do household chores anymore. Yet, it was not until 1778 that she had set free when her master, John Wheatley, died. That year she married John Peters. Peters was a free black grocer. They had two children. Both of them died when they were babies. Her husband got put in prison in 1784 for debt. After this Wheatley became very poor. Wheatley died of illness in 1784 in Boston. She was 31 years old.