Phillis Wheatley was a young African-American slave who belonged to landowner John Wheatley in Colonial America.
菲利斯·惠特莉是美国殖民地时期庄园主约翰·惠特莉家的一个年轻的黑人奴隶。
She was also a poet and the first African-American ever to publish a book.
她也是一个诗人，是第一个出版书籍的美国黑人。
Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was printed in Boston in 1773,
她的《关于不同学科，宗教和道德的诗歌》1773在波士顿出版，
three years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
在《独立宣言》签署的三年前。
Early slaves were generally denied education.
早期奴隶通常没有受教育的权利。
But Wheatley was allowed by her owner to study poetry, Latin and the Bible.
但是惠特莉的农场主允许她学习诗歌，拉丁语和《圣经》。
And by the time she reached her late teens, she had written enough poetry to put together a slender book of verse.
到她快20岁的时候，她写的诗歌足以编成一部小诗集。
Even so, publication was difficult.
即便如此，出版仍然不易。
The publisher, fearful of being cheated,
因为担心被骗，
forced her to submit to a scholarly examination by a board of educated men, including the colonial governor.
出版商要求她通过一个学术测试。考官是一些受过教育的人，包括殖民地官员。
The board of judges questioned Wheatley extensively and ruled that she was educated enough to have written the book.
考官们广泛地考问了惠特莉，并且裁定她的教育水平足够出一本书。
Only then was publication permitted.
到那时她的书才允许出版。
Wheatley may have been the first, but she was not the only slave to write a book during the growing days of the Republic.
惠特莉可能是第一个，但她不是共和国发展时期唯一一个出书的奴隶。
Unfortunately, most of the early popular African-American writers have been all but forgotten in modern times, until now.
不幸的是，大多数早期受欢迎的美国黑人作家几乎都在近代被遗忘了，直到今天。
A Cornell professor, Henry Louis Gates,
一个康奈尔的教授，亨利·路易斯·盖特，
recently started a research project looking into 19th century African-American fiction and poetry.
最近开始写一篇研究报告，调查19世纪美国黑人的小说和诗歌。
In the process, he uncovered numerous lost works, almost half of which were written by African-American women.
在这个过程中，他发现了大量丢失的作品，里面几乎有一半都是美国黑人女性作家写的。
In varied literary styles, the newly resurfaced manuscripts offered a rich stock of African-American culture,
在各式各样的文体里，最新的重新露面的手稿展现了丰富的美国黑人文化，
recreating among other things the early days of slavery and the importance of religion to the slaves.
从其他层面还原了早期的奴隶制度和宗教对于奴隶的重要性。