Does not your soul possess the sacred flame?
Thus Phillis Wheatley wrote in the first stanza of “To Maecenas,” a poem in which she questions Maecenas, the great art patron of the Augustan Era. Drawing parallels between ancient Rome and colonial America, she exposed glaring commonalities, namely, slavery. Referring to the ancient poet Terence, himself an enslaved man, she placed an asterisk next to his name, which led the reader to a simple footnote: “He was an African by birth.”
Challenges to slavery and inequality were a defining feature of her work. America’s first published female Black poet, Phillis Wheatley was born free, enslaved as a child, purchased by a family in colonial Massachusetts, and eventually liberated. She channeled her life experiences into poetry that reflected upon the fundamental founding principle of equal opportunity.
At age fifteen, in 1768 Wheatley wrote perhaps her most famous poem, “On Being Brought From Africa to America.” Though a mere eight lines, the poem stands as a testament to her genius as well as the revolutionary nature of her world.
