She is believed to be the first enslaved person and first African American to publish a book of poetry. She also forced the US to reckon with slavery's hypocrisy.

When the Dartmouth sliced through the frigid waters of Boston Harbor on 28 November 1773, the Quaker-owned whaler carried a cargo that included 114 chests of British East India Company tea. Eighteen days later, the tea, along with 228 additional trunks from the soon-to-arrive Beaverand Eleanor, would play a starring role in the US Colonies' most iconic act of resistance, which ultimately led to the Revolutionary War.

In the Dartmouth's hold was another precious cargo: freshly printed copies of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, a collection by Phillis Wheatley, the first enslaved person, first African American woman and third female in the US colonies to publish a book of poetry. Her life and work would become emblematic of the US struggle for freedom, a tale whose most visible representation – the Boston Tea Party, when American colonists protested Britain's "taxation without representation" by dumping tea into the harbour – celebrates its 250th anniversary on 16 December this year.

Evan O'Brien, creative manager of the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum, said, "Our mission, especially this year, is to talk not just about the individuals who were onboard the vessels, destroying the tea, but everyone who lived in Boston in 1773, including Phillis Wheatley."

Actor Cathryn Philippe, who interprets Wheatley at the museum, connected with the poet's remarkable accomplishments. "You often hear about the tragedy of enslavement, which is a part of history that needs to be understood. But we don't hear much about the joy or successes of enslaved or formerly enslaved Africans."

Wheatley was born in what is now Senegal or Gambia and was abducted in 1761 when she was just seven or eight years old. Forced, along with 94 other Africans, aboard the slave-trading brigantine Phillis, she survived the treacherous Middle Passage, which claimed the lives of nearly two million enslaved people – including a quarter of the Phillis' "cargo" – over a 360-year period, and arrived on Boston's shores that summer.

Frail after eight weeks at sea, the girl caught the attention of wealthy merchant and tailor John Wheatley. He purchased the child as a gift for his wife, Susanna, and renamed her after the vessel that had spirited her away from her home.

Phillis showed a natural aptitude for language. David Waldstreicher, professor of history at the City University of New York and author of the forthcoming biography The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley, said, "She became fluent and culturally literate and able to write poems in English so quickly that we shouldn't hesitate to call her a genius."

Although the Wheatleys were not abolitionists (they enslaved several people, and segregated Phillis from them) they recognised Phillis' talents and encouraged her to study Latin, Greek, history, theology and poetry. Inspired by the likes of Alexander Pope and Isaac Watts, she stayed up at night, writing heroic couplets and elegies to notable figures by candlelight. She published her first verse, in the Newport Mercury, at age 13.

While many New Englanders took note of the poet's gifts, no American printer would publish a book by........

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