Sylvanus Urban. The Gentleman's Magazine. London, September 1773. 8vo. Disbound. 

The poem "On Recollection" by Phillis Wheatley, printed in the September 1773 issue of Gentleman's Weekly and published nearly simultaneously to her volume of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects (1773). As a footnote to the poem, the editor adds a brief biography and commentary on her enslavement: "This poor girl was brought an uncultivated barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and no is - a Slave! Youth, innocence, and piety, united with genius, have not yet been able to restore her to the condition and character with which she was invested by the Great Author of her being. So powerful is custom in rendering the heart insensible to the rights of nature, and the claims of excellence!"

Phillis Wheatley, who was likely born in West Africa, was enslaved as a child and sold to John and Susannah Wheatley of Boston in 1761. John Wheatley encouraged her intellect and hired her a tutor. On a trip to England in 1773, she was taken into the circle of the Countess of Huntington and arrangements were made for the publication of her Poems. Brawley 31; Sabin 10316; Wegelin 432.

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Ephemera, Pamphlets, Publications, Booklets, Poetry, Literature]