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Phillis Wheatley's writing desk
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[ This description is from the project: MHS 225th Anniversary ]
Phillis Wheatley's Chippendale-style mahogany writing desk dates to about 1760. Wheatley was a slave of John Wheatley of Boston, who taught her to read English, Greek, and Latin. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first book of poetry by a black American, was published in London in 1773.