[4] The painting depicts a young African American woman, Phillis Wheatley, sitting at a desk.

To verify that she was indeed African American, the publisher asked that she provide a portrait for the work, which was engraved for the frontispiece.

"[5] It is believed by some modern scholars that Wheatley commissioned the African American artist Scipio Moorhead to create the portrait.

[6] Additionally, the painting's unusual depiction of a black woman writing has no parallel among the white artists contemporary to the period.

However, despite the fact that 19th-century abolitionists were interested in Wheatley and gathered information and anecdotes about her and other Boston area slaves, there are no sources from the 18th or 19th century that attest to the identity of the artist.