 Imagine that, like Phillis, you were forced to leave your home and family when you were seven years old. What might your adjustment have been like?  How are these hardships like the ones you think Phillis had to overcome?  How might they be different?

 According to her poem, what did Phillis gain by coming to America?  Based on his letter, would John Wheatley have agreed with her assessment?  What makes you think so?

 Phillis wrote many pro-Revolutionary poems during the War of Independence. Why, as a slave, might she have had such strong feelings about this war?

 Based on the first lines of her poem, would you conclude that Phillis considered herself a religious person?  What makes you think so?  What do these lines say about life in America at that time?