Welcome to Slow English FM’s Today in History. We share clear stories about the past to help listeners understand the world and improve their English. This episode is about a letter Phillis Wheatley wrote on October 18, 1773.

EmmaPhillis Wheatley was an African-American poet who had been enslaved. In her letter to David Wooster, she confirmed that her enslaver had granted her freedom after she returned from London. She said this happened at the request of friends in England. The letter did not mark the day she became free. It recorded that her freedom had already been granted. The Massachusetts Historical Society holds the original letter. Its date is October 18, 1773. The letter gives us Wheatley’s own account of her freedom and the role her friends in England played in it.

That was Today in History on Slow English FM. Thanks for listening.