Sarah Morton was an acclaimed poet and writer. She was born into a wealthy Boston family and was baptized at King’s Chapel. In 1781, she and Perez Morton, a Boston lawyer, were married in Trinity Church. Years later, after a tragic family scandal involving her husband and younger sister, the couple moved to Dorchester. Sarah had been writing poetry since childhood, and as an adult addressed such serious topics as the role of women in society and relations among people of different races. Her first book, Ouabi, or the Virtues of Nature: An Indian Tale in Four Cantos, was published in 1790. It was a groundbreaking piece with a Native American hero and cultural themes. She published a number of other works which brought her attention and praise using the pen name Philenia. Sarah’s uncle, William Hill Brown, wrote a book based on her unhappy marriage, titled The Power of Sympathy. It is considered to be the first American novel. Sarah lived to be eighty-six years old, and by the time of her death her literary career was all but forgotten.
