she was purchased in 1761 by susanna wheatley, the wife of a boston merchant. she was to be a domestic slave rather than a field hand or work as a domestic worker on a large plantation which was the fate of most female-enslaved people at this time. and she was also very fortunate because the family into which she landed was very, very attentive to her. they quickly observed that she was a very quick learner, extremely precocious and with a keen intellect. and rather than repress phyllis' intellect, they nurtured it, cultivated it, they encouraged it. they taught her to read and write. not only that, they taught her mathematics. they taught her geography, history, and even the classics. in fact, they taught her to read in latin. and even the most educated women in america at this time, one of the most educated being a woman named mercy otis warren of massachusetts, did not know how to read the classical languages. that was the true hallmark of a gentleman, of an educated person. but yet phyllis wheatley learned to read latin. at some point as a teenager, probabl