Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was first published in London on September 1, 1773, and the first American edition was printed in Philadelphia in 1786. The title page, which appears above, features an engraving of Phillis done after a portrait by Scipio Moorhead, the slave of a Boston minister. Materials provided at the beginning of the book included an "attestation," signed by 18 prominent Bostonians, confirming that a young, female African slave had written the poems.