As you stand at this corner, look at this print of the buildings and streets. Phillis Wheatley (ca. 1753-84) lived right on this corner in the heart of the city in the Wheatleys’ mansion, at what was then King Street and Mackerel Lane, from 1761-1774. From the windows of the mansion, she could have seen lots of comings and goings and lots of “revolutionary” action, including patriots protesting the Stamp Act, or the Redcoats marching up from the harbor. Many of her poems were inspired by nearby events such as the Boston Massacre. In this house, Phillis Wheatley proved herself a genius, learning English in only 16 months with the Wheatleys’ daughter Mary as her tutor, and then going on to master Greek and Latin and write poetry. Phillis Wheatley’s “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” was published in England in 1773. In 1774, 300 copies arrived in Boston and sold quickly. That same year, at age 21, Phillis Wheatley became a free woman. When the Wheatleys left their mansion during the conflicts surrounding the occupation of Boston by British troops, she moved to Providence, RI, to live with Mary Wheatley. She also wrote a special letter to the Reverend Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian Christian missionary, about freedom. An excerpt from it is on the Women’s Memorial.
