She wants to inform her readers of the opposite factand yet the wording of her confession of faith became proof to later readers that she had sold out, like an Uncle Tom, to her captors' religious propaganda. John Hancock, one of Wheatley's examiners in her trial of literacy and one of the founders of the United States, was also a slaveholder, as were Washington and Jefferson. She adds that in case he wonders why she loves freedom, it is because she was kidnapped from her native Africa and thinks of the suffering of her parents. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. A second biblical allusion occurs in the word train. n001 n001. In this verse, however, Wheatley has adeptly managed biblical allusions to do more than serve as authorizations for her writing; as finally managed in her poem, these allusions also become sites where this license is transformed into an artistry that in effect becomes exemplarily self-authorized. Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. 1753-1784. Mistakes do not get in the way of understanding. She also indicates, apropos her point about spiritual change, that the Christian sense of Original Sin applies equally to both races. In effect, she was attempting a degree of integration into Western culture not open to, and perhaps not even desired by, many African Americans. The last two lines of the poem make use of imperative language, which is language that gives a command or tells the reader what to do. Some readers, looking for protests against slavery in her work, have been disenchanted upon instead finding poems like "On Being Brought from Africa to America" to reveal a meek acceptance of her slave fate. Wheatley's criticisms steam mostly form the figurative language in the poem. Q. Metaphor. The multiple meanings of the line "Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain" (7), with its ambiguous punctuation and double entendres, have become a critical commonplace in analyses of the poem. In fact, the whole thrust of the poem is to prove the paradox that in being enslaved, she was set free in a spiritual sense. She started writing poetry at age 14 and published her first poem in 1767. It is also pointed out that Wheatley perhaps did not complain of slavery because she was a pampered house servant. Most of the slaves were held on the southern plantations, but blacks were house servants in the North, and most wealthy families were expected to have them. Against the unlikely backdrop of the institution of slavery, ideas of liberty were taking hold in colonial America, circulating for many years in intellectual circles before war with Britain actually broke out. The speaker makes a claim, an observation, implying that black people are seen as no better than animals - a sable - to be treated as merchandise and nothing more. Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are . Negros They have become, within the parameters of the poem at least, what they once abhorredbenighted, ignorant, lost in moral darkness, unenlightenedbecause they are unable to accept the redemption of Africans. If she had left out the reference to Cain, the poem would simply be asserting that black people, too, can be saved. Many of her elegies meditate on the soul in heaven, as she does briefly here in line 8. The poem consists of: Phillis Wheatley was abducted from her home in Africa at the age of 7 (in 1753) and taken by ship to America, where she ended up as the property of one John Wheatley, of Boston. Importantly, she mentions that the act of understanding God and Savior comes from the soul. Her most well-known poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," is an eight-line poem that addresses the hypocrisy of so-called Christian people incorrectly believing that those of African heritage cannot be educated and incorrectly believing that they are lesser human beings. PART B: Which phrase from the text best supports the answer to Part A? She is grateful for being made a slave, so she can receive the dubious benefits of the civilization into which she has been transplanted. Show all. Wheatley was hailed as a genius, celebrated in Europe and America just as the American Revolution broke out in the colonies. The definition of pagan, as used in line 1, is thus challenged by Wheatley in a sense, as the poem celebrates that the term does not denote a permanent category if a pagan individual can be saved. This color, the speaker says, may think is a sign of the devil. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/being-brought-africa-america. It is supposed that she was a native of Senegal or nearby, since the ship took slaves from the west coast of Africa. Carretta, Vincent, and Philip Gould, Introduction, in Genius in Bondage: Literature of the Early Black Atlantic, edited by Vincent Carretta and Philip Gould, University Press of Kentucky, 2001, pp. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., claims in The Trials of Phillis Wheatley that Boston contained about a thousand African Americans out of a population of 15,520. During her time with the Wheatley family, Phillis showed a keen talent for learning and was soon proficient in English. The poet quickly and ably turns into a moral teacher, explaining as to her backward American friends the meaning of their own religion. 233 Words1 Page. Nevertheless, that an eighteenth-century woman (who was not a Quaker) should take on this traditionally male role is one surprise of Wheatley's poem. Endnotes. She grew increasingly critical of slavery and wrote several letters in opposition to it. HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH 1 1 Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1997. Text is very difficult to understand. Phillis Wheatley read quite a lot of classical literature, mostly in translation (such as Pope's translations of Homer), but she also read some Latin herself. An online version of Wheatley's poetry collection, including "On Being Brought from Africa to America.". Both well-known and unknown writers are represented through biography, journals, essays, poems, and fiction. Suddenly, the audience is given an opportunity to view racism from a new perspective, and to either accept or reject this new ideological position. 1 Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition, ed. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. In the following essay on "On Being Brought from Africa to America," she focuses on Phillis Wheatley's self-styled personaand its relation to American history, as well as to popular perceptions of the poet herself. Redemption and Salvation: The speaker states that had she not been taken from her homeland and brought to America, she would never have known that there was a God and that she needed saving. Phillis Wheatley 's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America" appeared in her 1773 volume Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first full-length published work by an African American author. The poem was published in 1773 when it was included in her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. Cain Spelling and Grammar. Create your account. There is no mention of forgiveness or of wrongdoing. Literature: The Human Experience - Macmillan Learning The darker races are looked down upon. Source: William J. Scheick, "Phillis Wheatley's Appropriation of Isaiah," in Early American Literature, Vol. 19, No. Black people, who were enslaved and thought of as evil by some people, can be of Christian faith and go to Heaven. POETRY POSSIBILITES for BLACK HISTORY MONTH is a collection of poems about notable African Americans and the history of Blacks in America. Although most of her religious themes are conventional exhortations against sin and for accepting salvation, there is a refined and beautiful inspiration to her verse that was popular with her audience. CRITICAL OVERVIEW This poetic demonstration of refinement, of "blooming graces" in both a spiritual and a cultural sense, is the "triumph in [her] song" entitled "On Being Brought from Africa to America.". both answers. This phrase can be read as Wheatley's effort to have her privileged white audience understand for just a moment what it is like to be singled out as "diabolic." Some view our sable race with scornful eye. The brief poem Harlem introduces themes that run throughout Langston Hughess volume Montage of a Dream Deferred and throughout his, Langston Hughes 19021967 Jefferson, a Founding Father and thinker of the new Republic, felt that blacks were too inferior to be citizens. The Impact of the Early Years ." In the poem, she gives thanks for having been brought to America, where she was raised to be a Christian. This same spirit in literature and philosophy gave rise to the revolutionary ideas of government through human reason, as popularized in the Declaration of Independence. 3, 1974, pp. Her benighted, or troubled soul was saved in the process. Conducted Reading Tour of the South (February 23, 2023). Wheatley's growing fame led Susanna Wheatley to advertise for a subscription to publish a whole book of her poems. The speaker takes the high moral ground and is not bitter or resentful - rather the voice is calm and grateful. Either of these implications would have profoundly disturbed the members of the Old South Congregational Church in Boston, which Wheatley joined in 1771, had they detected her "ministerial" appropriation of the authority of scripture. There were public debates on slavery, as well as on other liberal ideas, and Wheatley was no doubt present at many of these discussions, as references to them show up in her poems and letters, addressed to such notable revolutionaries as George Washington, the Countess of Huntingdon, the Earl of Dartmouth, English antislavery advocates, the Reverend Samuel Cooper, and James Bowdoin. "Their colour is a diabolic die.". That Wheatley sometimes applied biblical language and allusions to undercut colonial assumptions about race has been documented (O'Neale), and that she had a special fondness for the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah is intimated by her verse paraphrase entitled "Isaiah LXIII. Wheatley goes on to say that when she was in Africa, she knew neither about the existence of God nor the need of a savior. Figurative language is writing that is understood because of its association with a familiar thing, action, or image. One may wonder, then, why she would be glad to be in such a country that rejects her people. Spelling is very inaccurate and hinders full understanding. Her published book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), might have propelled her to greater prominence, but the Revolutionary War interrupted her momentum, and Wheatley, set free by her master, suddenly had to support herself. For Wheatley's management of the concept of refinement is doubly nuanced in her poem. Indeed, racial issues in Wheatley's day were of primary importance as the new nation sought to shape its identity. Even before the Revolution, black slaves in Massachusetts were making legal petitions for their freedom on the basis of their natural rights. I feel like its a lifeline. As placed in Wheatley's poem, this allusion can be read to say that being white (silver) is no sign of privilege (spiritually or culturally) because God's chosen are refined (purified, made spiritually white) through the afflictions that Christians and Negroes have in common, as mutually benighted descendants of Cain. Figurative language is used in this poem. By the time Wheatley had been in America for 16 months, she was reading the Bible, classics in Greek and Latin, and British literature. On Being Brought from Africa to America | Encyclopedia.com (PDF) Taking Offense Religion, Art, and Visual Culture in Plural , It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Figurative language is used in this poem. The effect is to place the "some" in a degraded position, one they have created for themselves through their un-Christian hypocrisy. She was the first African American to publish a full book, although other slave authors, such as Lucy Terry and Jupiter Hammon, had printed individual poems before her. She says that some people view their "sable race" with a "scornful eye. the colonies have tried every means possible to avoid war. Line 4 goes on to further illustrate how ignorant Wheatley was before coming to America: she did not even know enough to seek the redemption of her soul. SOURCES This creates a rhythm very similar to a heartbeat. Western notions of race were still evolving. 2 Wheatley, "On the Death of General Wooster," in Call and Response, p. 103.. 3 Horton, "The Slave's Complaint," in Call and Response, pp. Research the history of slavery in America and why it was an important topic for the founders in their planning for the country. al. Carretta and Gould note the problems of being a literate black in the eighteenth century, having more than one culture or language. Africa, the physical continent, cannot be pagan. Wheatley's poetry was heavily influenced by the poets she had studied, such as Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray. She did not know that she was in a sinful state. In this essay, Gates explores the philosophical discussions of race in the eighteenth century, summarizing arguments of David Hume, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson on the nature of "the Negro," and how they affected the reception of Wheatley's poetry. Some were deists, like Benjamin Franklin, who believed in God but not a divine savior. As did "To the University of Cambridge," this poem begins with the sentiment that the speaker's removal from Africa was an act of "mercy," but in this context it becomes Wheatley's version of the "fortunate fall"; the speaker's removal to the colonies, despite the circumstances, is perceived as a blessing. Elvis made white noise while disrupting conventional ideas with his sexual appeal in performances. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. , "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. Thus, in order to participate fully in the meaning of the poem, the audience must reject the false authority of the "some," an authority now associated with racism and hypocrisy, and accept instead the authority that the speaker represents, an authority based on the tenets of Christianity. The difficulties she may have encountered in America are nothing to her, compared to possibly having remained unsaved. She was seven or eight years old, did not speak English, and was wrapped in a dirty carpet. This is a reference to the biblical Book of Genesis and the two sons of Adam. Perhaps her sense of self in this instance demonstrates the degree to which she took to heart Enlightenment theories concerning personal liberty as an innate human right; these theories were especially linked to the abolitionist arguments advanced by the New England clergy with whom she had contact (Levernier, "Phillis"). Voice | Academy of American Poets In effect, the reader is invited to return to the start of the poem and judge whether, on the basis of the work itself, the poet has proven her point about the equality of the two races in the matter of cultural well as spiritual refinement.