Phillis Wheatley(1753-1784) was the first African American, the first slave, and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems. Kidnapped in West Africa (believed somewhere in Senegal) and transported aboard the slave ship Phillis to Boston in 1761, she was purchased by John Wheatley as a servant for his wife. Phillis quickly learned to speak English and to read the Bible.
She published her first poem in 1767 and her first volume of verse, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773. She traveled to London to be treated for a medical aliment and learned she had a great many admirers there. She was eventually freed from slavery and married another freed slave. The Wheatleys and her husband died and she was left to support herself, dying in poverty alone in her thirties. Her last manuscript which was never published has not been located. Read more about her here: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/phillis-wheatley