Is that correct? Can you tell us more about this period of their lives?

I think I can.

Why they were published, where they were published, and for whom they were published.

Because both of their accounts of their lives were published in the Baptist Annual Register, which was published in London.

also distributed throughout Great Britain, in Scotland, and in Ireland, also in North America, in New York and Philadelphia, and Richmond, Virginia, Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Think about that for a moment.

These are accounts of former slaves of Americans, and their accounts are being published in the 1790s in Richmond, Savannah, and Charleston.

Was it different back then?

What do we know about Phyllis at that point?

Well, actually, surprisingly, we know much more about how she got to Boston than we do about any other person of African descent in the 18th century.

And that's really quite extraordinary because we have the manuscript correspondence between the owner of the slave ship that brought her from Africa to America.

And the letters that he wrote to the captain of the slave ship directing him, in this case, for the voyage that brought Phyllis to Boston, The owner tells the captain, do not do what you did on the last voyage.

Do not bring little children and girls.

Do not buy them because they have very little market value here.

So this is actually significant, I think, when we're talking about where Phyllis probably came from in Africa.

Right,