In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters: A Short Historical Documentary

AAS hosts a screening and discussion of In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters, a new, thirty-five minute documentary about America’s first published Black poet. Produced by Askew Pictures, the film illuminates a largely overlooked chapter of Wheatley Peters’ story: her marriage to John Peters and the radical choices she made in pursuit of autonomy, dignity, and love.

Drawing on groundbreaking archival research by historian Cornelia Dayton (elected October 2020), the film brings newly uncovered documents and historical evidence to life, challenging long-standing narratives that have framed Wheatley Peters primarily as a literary prodigy shaped by others. Instead, the documentary situates her as an abolitionist actively navigating the political, economic, and racial constraints of Revolutionary-era Boston.  Featuring insights from leading scholars, poets, and cultural historians, In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters reframes her not only as a foundational literary figure, but as a revolutionary woman whose choices—intellectual, emotional, and political—continue to resonate today.

At the center of the film is the poet’s 1778 marriage to John Peters, a free Black man, entrepreneur, and advocate who shared her belief in self-determination. Together, they confronted poverty, racism, and legal precarity in a society that offered little protection to Black families in the aftermath of the American Revolution. Their partnership emerges not as a footnote, but as a deliberate and meaningful act—one that reshapes how we understand Wheatley Peters’ later life and work.