Scipio Moorhead

Scipio Moorhead, born around 1750 to 1760, was an enslaved, African American artist in Boston, Massachusetts, who is remembered primarily for his association with the poet Phillis Wheatley Peters. Enslaved by the Reverend John Moorhead, Scipio Moorhead may have been taught drawing by the reverend’s wife, Sarah. Despite his enslavement, Moorhead may have enjoyed some freedoms typically reserved for free workers, which allowed him to hone his artistic talents.

Phillis Wheatley Peters, an enslaved African woman kidnapped as a child and brought to America, became the first African American to publish a book of poetry. It is speculated that in 1773 she commissioned Moorhead to create her portrait, which served as the basis for the engraving that became the frontispiece of her collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This portrait, depicting Wheatley Peters at a writing desk in a pose of pensive contemplation, is Moorhead’s only known surviving work and is considered a milestone in American art. It is the first known portrait of an American woman of African descent.

Most scholars believe Wheatley Peters honored Moorhead in her poem “To S. M. a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works,” which was included in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Without her recognition, his name and work might have been lost entirely. The last record of Moorhead regards him being put up for sale at an auction near Boston’s Liberty Tree in 1775.