When Wheatley visited London in 1773, at the age of 20, she met and influenced several significant figures. Having already gained the attention of prominent figures like John Hancock, who signed the forward to her volume of poetry, Wheatley arrived in London for a six-week trip that would expose her to a greater array of places and people.
In a letter to David Wooster, Wheatley lists that she visited Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, Coxe's Museum, Saddler's Wells, Greenwich Hospital, Park and Chapel, The Royal Observatory of Greenwich, among many other places in London. Wheatley also met many prominent figures, including Benjamin Franklin and the Earl of Dartmouth, among others.
While in London, Wheatley also met Granville Sharp, who accompanied her to the Tower of London and showed her the royal animals and the crown jewels. Sharp was an abolitionist campaigner who had played a crucial role in the Somersett case, which ruled that James Somersett, an enslaved African man, could not legally be brought back to Boston from England by his master. This ruling proved instrumental in extending liberty to enslaved Africans in Britain.
Wheatley and Granville likely met more than once, and Granville passed Wheatley books and materials, some of which may have been anti-slavery texts. It is likely that Granville encouraged Wheatley to seek freedom, and she was freed by her masters soon after she returned from London.
Today, Phillis Wheatley is strongly associated with the East End of London, though she likely only visited the location once.
