Phillis Wheatley (1753 – 1784) was the first published African American poet and the first African American woman whose writings were published. Phillis was brought from Africa to America in the year 1761; she was made a slave at the age of seven. She was purchased by Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write and helped encourage her poetry. Without any assistance from school education, and by only what she was taught in the family, she, in sixteenth months time from her arrival, attained the English language, to which she was an utter stranger before. She very soon learned the ancient Greek and Latin languages. She also acquainted herself with the Bible. Phillis Wheatley has never been given her rightful place in American Literature. Her uniqueness and distinction lie in the fact that she was the first African American, the first slave, and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems. Since the eighteenth century, the poet had attracted a good number of critics. These critics paid scant attention to this New England slave poet and none has viewed all of her writings nor has considered the pressures of the times in which she wrote. Taking into consideration the traditional criticism, this paper will try to focus on the critical appreciation of her poetry and prose and how far her poetry had helped shaping her character and identity; and ultimately achieved a great fame despite the spread of slavery system during that time, keeping in mind, the realities of her Colonial times, in an attempt to show that she is a black woman and she is very much conscious of her status and, as such, she is extremely aware of her community and of her freedom.