Phillis Wheatley Stamps Are Now on Sale

In my 30s, I have apparently become a philatelist, and so as a new-founded philatelist and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, I am over the moon that the Phillis Wheatley Stamps are on sale today!

Wheatley is well-known, now, as the first Black author in the American colonies, and was an enslaved woman who learned to read and write. Her poetry reached George Washington, and she was emancipated shortly after her poems were published. She died very young, and her legacy is absolutely one of those that could have easily been lost to history but she has become a frequent subject of biography.

The Trials of Phillis Wheatley by Henry Louis Gates Jr is the most popular book about her in recent years–and I highly recommend it as a thoughtful look at her life but also the interactions her existence and writings had with American’s seeking freedom. One recent adult biography of her is The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley, which is a pretty all-encompassing look at her 31-ish years on Earth. There’s a Candlewick kids biography of her that I’ve seen shared quite a bit, and of course, you can read her poems in their original state.

This black and white stamp shows Wheatley facing the viewing, holding a quill, and.I cannot wait to see it gracing envelopes all over the country and sharing her story and her words with even more people.

Visit the USPS Phillis Wheatley collection to order your Forever Stamps or other memorabilia.