but yet phillis wheatley learned to read latin. at some point as a teenager probably with the wheatleys' encouragement phillis took up her pen and began to compose poetry. the wheatleys were stunned by phillis's gift and began to seek publication for her works in newspapers. one of her poems on george whitfield, the itinerant minister, was published, and it gains widespread attention, both in the british colonies and in england. so phillis wheatley, then, was actually gaining fame as a poet in the years just prior to the american revolution, or to the declaration of american independence. the wheatleys actually believed that phillis's work should be published as a book. and they tried to find an american publisher for her work without success. so in may of 1773 they sent phillis along with their son to england. there phillis wheatley made contacts with many notable people who were supportive of her talents and impressed by they are abilities. she gained a patroness, the countess of huntington, who sponsored the publication of her bo

not so another american political leader, thomas jefferson, who dismissed phillis wheatley's poetry as inferior and not worth the label of literary. nevertheless, i think what this whole episode shows us is that for phillis wheatley and for the americans who witnessed the flourishing of her career it was possible to see that black people were capable of much more than anyone had given them credit for. surely most of the leaders of philadelphia in 1776 would not have anticipated this as part of the revolutionary legacy. but as exceptional as wheatley's abilities were she was not the only enslaved person to believe that the rhetoric of the american revolution applied to them. in many states north and south enslaved people took the ideas of liberty, equality, rights, freedom, and started applying them to themselves. in some states enslaved people petitioned their legislators for their liberty. sometimes they appropriated the very words of the declaration of independence in asking for their freedom. in many places enslaved people did not bother with formalities. it's believed that anywhere