So far as the historical records allow us to know such things, was Phillis Wheatley [1753 - 1784, educated by 1765] the first Afro-American (slave) woman to read Greek and Latin?
She seems to have been very proficient at learning languages, judging by how quickly she picked up English, but this is all I can find of her language efforts in Latin (and no evidence of any claims to Greek, which all seem to be in badly sourced internet articles).
I notice that very many places on the internet (and library catalogues!) miscategorize poems in a collection of William Shenstone as Phillis Wheatley’s. In fact, these are by Mary Whateley (Wheately/Wheatly/Wheatley).
Phillis Wheatley would have been about 20 when her 1773 volume of poetry was published. Her life after she was freed by John Wheatley seems to have been marred by poverty and a bad marriage.
There are some good lines in her poetry, thought it’s mostly a trudge. Like this one:
No—bow resign’d. Let hope your grief control,
And check the rising tumult of the soul.
“Rising tumult of the soul” is a nice and almost unique turn of phrase. A quick Google shows what I think the model is in this 1759 (very loose) translation of Oedipus Rex by Thomas Francklin:
Daughter of hope, O! sooth my soul to rest,
And calm the rising tumult in my breast