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Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa"

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Re-Reading Questions

Text on p. 1155 of the full Ninth Edition

'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, [1]
Taught my benighted soul to understand [2]
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: [3]
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. [4]
Some view our sable race with scornful eye, [5]
"Their colour is a diabolic die." [6]
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, [7]
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. [8]

Re-Reading Questions

1. Explore the questions in the notes.

2. Considering that the poem is written by a slave, what tones do you hear? Are you aware of a different tone on re-reading?

3. How would you describe Wheatley's feelings about Christianity? About the Christianity of "some" of her readers?

4. Consider this letter to the Rev. Samson Occom dated February 11, 1774, and its perspective on the poem:

Reverend and honoured Sir,
I have this day received your obliging kind epistle, and am greatly satisfied with your reasons respecting the negroes, and think highly reasonable what you offer in vindication of their natural rights: Those that invade them cannot be insensible that the divine light is chasing away the thick darkness which broods over the land of Africa; and the chaos which has reigned so long, is converting into beautiful order, and reveals more and more clearly the glorious dispensation of civil and religious liberty, which are so inseparably united, that there is little or no enjoyment of one without the other: Otherwise, perhaps, the Israelites had been less solicitous for their freedom from Egyptian slavery; I do not say they would have been contented without it, by no means; for in every human breast God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom. It is impatient of oppression, and pants for deliverance; and by the leave of our modern Egyptians I will assert, that the same principle lives in us. God grant deliverance in his own way and time, and get him honour upon all those whose avarice impels them to countenance and help forward the calamities of their fellow creatures. This I desire not for their hurt, but to convince them of the strange absurdity of their conduct, whose words and actions are so diametrically opposite. How well the cry for liberty, and the reverse disposition for the exercise of oppressive power over others agree—I humbly think it does not require the penetration of a philosopher to determine.

5. Wheatley is sometimes judged harshly today for not being more socially conscious and openly speaking for her race. What do you think of that judgment? What do you see in the subtext and exploration of the poems which might not have been apparent to her white readers at the time?

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