Q 01/05

What gave the poet Phillis Wheatley her first name when she reached Boston as a child in 1761?

A) Her owner's late daughter

B) The ship that carried her

C) A shepherdess in Virgil

D) The month she was sold

Answer · why

B) The ship that carried her

The ship that carried her from West Africa was a slave vessel called the Phillis, and the Boston family who bought her on arrival supplied the surname...

Q 02/05

Which general invited Phillis Wheatley to his Cambridge headquarters after she sent him a poem of praise in 1775?

A) George Washington

B) Nathanael Greene

C) Israel Putnam

D) Richard Montgomery

Answer · why

A) George Washington

George Washington told her the lines were striking proof of her great poetical talents, and said he had not printed them himself only for fear of look...

Q 03/05

Copies of Phillis Wheatley's first book crossed the Atlantic in 1773 aboard a vessel soon targeted in which protest?

A) The Burning of the Gaspee

B) The Pine Tree Riot

C) The Boston Tea Party

D) The Liberty Riot

Answer · why

C) The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party raiders destroyed only the tea, so the copies of her poems sharing the same hold came ashore unharmed.

Q 04/05

Which Founding Father's Notes on the State of Virginia called Phillis Wheatley's poems below the dignity of criticism?

A) James Madison

B) Patrick Henry

C) Richard Henry Lee

D) Thomas Jefferson

Answer · why

D) Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson allowed that religion had produced her but denied it could produce a poet, even as abolitionists were citing her verse as proof of Bl...

Q 05/05

The engraved portrait facing the title page of Phillis Wheatley's 1773 book shows the young poet doing what?

A) Writing at a desk

B) Reading a Bible

C) Standing in chains

D) Sewing by a window

Answer · why

A) Writing at a desk

Writing at a desk, quill in one hand and chin resting on the other, she sits for what appears to be the first portrayal of a woman writing in American...