Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784) was born in West Africa and transported to Boston as a slave child. Purchased by the Wheatley family, she received an exceptional education and began composing poetry as a teenager. In 1773 she became the first African American and one of the first American women to publish a book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (Archibald Bell, London, 1773). Her work is grounded in neoclassical forms and themes of religious devotion, but also engages questions of freedom and the African experience. She was manumitted after the publication of her book. She met with George Washington in 1776. Her work remained largely forgotten until its scholarly recovery in the twentieth century.