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Events on Sunday 5 December 1784 1
1753 – 1784Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)Died 5 December 1784, aged about 31Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet, died in poverty in Boston. Brought to America as an enslaved child, she gained international recognition in 1773 with Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Her work was cited by abolitionists as evidence of the intellectual capacities of enslaved people.