Phillis Wheatley was the first published African American poet. She started her life in Gambia Africa and was captured by slave traders and brought to the American Colonies. She was bought by the Wheatley's when she was seven years old and, unlike many other slaves during this time period, she was exposed to literature and taught how to be literate. She would become a poet due to her exposure by the Wheatley family to the Bible, history, and English Literature. She rose to fame and became the first African American poetry writer in modern times, after her book was published in 1773 the Wheatley family emancipated Phillis Wheatley. John Wheatley, Phillis' owner, wrote a letter to the publisher of Phillis Wheatley’s work. In this letter he describes her drive to learn more and how it did not come from a formal education but from his family and how she had a curiosity about learning the Latin tongue. In the end of the letter Mr. Wheatley says with what seems to be love that he was the one who bought her and the one that she lives with now.