Studying Phillis Wheatley Peters: Ideas and Books for the Secondary Classroom

Meet Our Contributor

​Margaret A. Robbins has a PhD in Language and Literacy Education from The University of Georgia. She is a Teacher-Scholar at The Mount Vernon School in Atlanta, Georgia. She has peer-reviewed journal articles published in The ALAN Review, SIGNAL Journal, Gifted Child Today, Social Studies Research and Practice, and The Qualitative Report. She recently co-edited a special issue of English Journal. Her research interests include comics, Young Adult literature, fandom, critical pedagogy, and writing instruction. 

Studying Phillis Wheatley Peters: Ideas and Books for the Secondary Classroom by Margaret A. Robbins PhD.

Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, attributed by some scholars to Scipio Moorhead

In celebration of Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, Phillis Wheatley Peters is a relevant figure to acknowledge. She was the first Black woman to publish in the United States, and she also gained attention in England during the late 1700s for her excellent writing. Historically, she was an important voice in writing, both as an abolitionist and as a patriot of the Revolutionary cause. I have taught Wheatley Peters’s poetry and related history articles in my G7 Humanities class, which, as many of you know, blends American History and Literature. 

This year, G7 Humanities students at my school, including my classes, studied an excerpt of the poem “To the Right and Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth” by Wheatley Peters. The poem paired well with our study of the historical fiction novel Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, which included an excerpt of Thomas Paine’s famous pamphlet Common Sense. Our students completed a literary analysis and persuasive writing assignment on these texts that my colleague found online at this site (pages 51-58 of the PDF). The assignment combined knowledge of these documents with an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence preamble. I was glad we were able to bring an excerpt of Wheatley Peters’s work into our class in a way that directly connected with the American Revolution history we studied. 

Still, I know that for some teachers, using Wheatley Peters’s high-concept writing in the K-12 classroom can be daunting. Therefore, I wanted to pass along a couple of resources that I believe are helpful and want to better utilize myself. The first is a wonderful website called The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters: A Poet and Her Legacies, linked here. This website is a wonderful compilation of history and teaching resources for various grade levels and is the long-time project of Dr. Barbara McCaskill, Dr. Mona Narain, and Dr. Sarah Ruffing Robbins. I highly recommend checking out this website for more historical and literary information about Wheatley Peters, as well as a wealth of teaching and scholarship resources. 
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While visiting Fort Worth, Texas, and Texas Christian University during my spring break week, the first week of March, I had a wonderful opportunity to view the short version of a documentary that I believe is highly beneficial to educators at all levels. The event was on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, and the details about it are linked here. The documentary In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters, the passion project of successful Filmmaker and Director Leslie Askew and experienced Producer Turlough White, is an outstanding overview of Wheatley Peters’s life and legacy. A longer version of the film (approximately 90 minutes) is forthcoming, and Ms. Askew and Mr. White plan to market it to K-12 teachers and academics worldwide. In the shorter version of the film, which is approximately 35 minutes long, I learned a lot about Wheatley Peters that I did not know, particularly in regards to her relationship with her husband, John Peters. 

I’ve also read and can recommend two books that The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters Project cites on their website on the Teaching Resources Page. One children’s/YA text that is great for classroom use is A Voice of Her Own: The Story of Phillis Wheatley Peters, Slave Poet by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Paul Lee. This book is more of a historical account of Wheatley Peters’s life. The second book I’ve read and can recommend is My Name is Phillis Wheatley: A Story of Slavery and Freedom by Afua Cooper, which takes a first-person narrative perspective and tells Phillis’s story. The books have different writing styles, yet both provide valuable insight into Wheatley Peters’s life, both the triumphs and the struggles. This Canva presentation gives more information about these and other books about Wheatley Peters’s life. 

A sculpture of Phillis Wheatley Peters is part of the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay. PHOTO: JENNIFER MOORE/GBH NEWS

Phillis Wheatley Peters is a sometimes underappreciated yet very important figure in American History and Literature. Her story is truly an inspiration to current writers. The documentary by Askew and White truly shows Wheatley Peters’s dedication to her art amid difficult circumstances, and the The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters website provides additional sources that will assist instructors in teaching Wheatley Peters’s writing, along with tangential texts, more effectively. Whether or not they wish to be writers, I believe students will appreciate Wheatley Peters’s dedication to her craft and the power she realized that her pen held.