Wheatley (Phillis) is born in West Africa.

(ca.) Captured in Africa, Phillis Wheatley arrives in Boston in 1761 and is enslaved as a servant by John and Susanna Wheatley in their home on the northeast corner of what is then King Street and Kilby Street near today’s 74 State Street. She becomes a member of Old South Church, begins writing poetry by age 11, and becomes the first African-American published poet in the U.S. in 1767.* Wheatley visits England in 1771,* publishes her first book there in 1773,* is freed when she returns to Boston, and marries freeman John Peters in 1778.* She dies in Boston on December 5, 1784, and is thought to be buried in the Granary Burying Ground, in a plot purchased by the Old South Church.