Thy evry action let the goddess guide. A crown, a mansion, and a thron — Phillis Wheatley

"Creation smiles in various beauty gay While day to night, and night succeeds day"

"No more, America, in mournful strain Of wrongs, and grievance unredressd complain, No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain, Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand Had made, and with it meant t enslave the land. Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatchd from Africs fancyd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my parents breast? Steeld was that soul and by no misery movd That from a father seizd his babe belovd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway?"

"A great deal of this new freedom rests upon the type of education which the Negro woman will receive. Early emancipation did not concern itself with giving advantages to Negro girls. The domestic realm was her field and no one sought to remove her. Even here, she was not given special training for her tasks. Only those with extraordinary talents were able to break the shackles of bondage. Phyllis Wheatley is to be remembered as an outstanding example of this ability — for through her talents one was able to free herself from house hold cares that devolved upon Negro women and make a contribution in literary art which is never to be forgotten. The years still re-echo her words. “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain/May be refined, and join the Angelic train”"

"Such, and so many, moves the warriors train. In bright array they seek the work of war, Where high unfurld the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou knowst them in the fields of fight."

"When Gallic powers Columbias fury found; And so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedoms heaven-defended race! Fixd are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes Columbias arm prevails."

"Unfavorable as were these conditions in the latter part of 1761, just before the birth of American freedom, arose our first contribution to literature. So strange were the conditions under which this race flower throve, we were not surprised at the doubt of her contemporaries as to whether she wrote the poems credited to her."