Phillis Wheatley was the first African American woman to publish a collection of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was enslaved as a child and brought to Boston in 1761. She quickly learned to read and write, immersing herself in the Bible, as well as works of history, literature, and philosophy. In 1770, she published an elegy on the revivalist George Whitefield that garnered international acclaim. Biblical themes would continue to feature prominently in her work. In 1773, she published a collection of poems titled, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This collection included her poem “On Recollection,” which appeared months earlier in The Annual Register here. Wheatley and her work served as a powerful symbol in the fight for both racial and gender equality in early America and helped fuel the growing antislavery movement.