Ann Plato

Life & Legacy

Ann Plato (c. 1823 – unknown) was a 19th-century African American educator and author. She was the second African-American woman to publish a book in the United States and the first to publish a book of essays and poems. As a young African-American girl writing in the 19th century, Plato has been described as an heir to Phillis Wheatley, who wrote her first published poem at the age of 13 in 1766. There is little biographical information on Plato, and most of her life is known from her only published work, Essays; including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Poetry, which included the preface written by Reverend James W. C. Pennington, an abolitionist leader in Hartford, Connecticut, and a pastor.