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. Wheatley explains her humble origins in "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and then promptly turns around to exhort her audience to accept African equality in the realm of spiritual matters, and by implication, in intellectual matters (the poem being in the form of neoclassical couplets). An error occurred trying to load this video. Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain. Have a specific question about this poem? At a Glance The poem On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley is a poetic representation of dark period in American history when slave trade was prominent in society. Christianity: The speaker of this poem talks about how it was God's "mercy" that brought her to America. It seems most likely that Wheatley refers to the sinful quality of any person who has not seen the light of God. Refine any search. Wheatley's revision of this myth possibly emerges in part as a result of her indicative use of italics, which equates Christians, Negros, and Cain (Levernier, "Wheatley's"); it is even more likely that this revisionary sense emerges as a result of the positioning of the comma after the word Negros. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. The poem uses the principles of Protestant meditation, which include contemplating various Christian themes like one's own death or salvation. . Slavery did not become illegal after the Revolution as many had hoped; it was not fully abolished in the United States until the end of the Civil War in 1865. In lieu of an open declaration connecting the Savior of all men and the African American population, one which might cause an adverse reaction in the yet-to-be-persuaded, Wheatley relies on indirection and the principle of association. This simple and consistent pattern makes sense for Wheatley's straightforward message. Wheatleys most prominent themes in this piece are religion, freedom, and equality. In thusly alluding to Isaiah, Wheatley initially seems to defer to scriptural authority, then transforms this legitimation into a form of artistic self-empowerment, and finally appropriates this biblical authority through an interpreting ministerial voice. Recent critics looking at the whole body of her work have favorably established the literary quality of her poems and her unique historical achievement. Irony is also common in neoclassical poetry, with the building up and then breaking down of expectations, and this occurs in lines 7 and 8. We respond to all comments too, giving you the answers you need. The early reviews, often written by people who had met her, refer to her as a genius. In 1773, Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared. In this poem, Wheatley posits that all people, from all races, can be saved by Christianity. The Challenge "There are more things in heav'n and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."Hamlet. 3That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: 4Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Once again, Wheatley co-opts the rhetoric of the other. POEM TEXT She had been publishing poems and letters in American newspapers on both religious matters and current topics. Speaking for God, the prophet at one point says, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isaiah 48:10). FRANK BIDART Africa, the physical continent, cannot be pagan. Author She addresses Christians, which in her day would have included most important people in America, in government, education, and the clergy. She did not seek redemption and did not even know that she needed it. Pagan 23, No. One result is that, from the outset, Wheatley allows the audience to be positioned in the role of benefactor as opposed to oppressor, creating an avenue for the ideological reversal the poem enacts. by Phillis Wheatley. Her being saved was not truly the whites' doing, for they were but instruments, and she admonishes them in the second quatrain for being too cocky. Almost immediately after her arrival in America, she was sold to the Wheatley family of Boston, Massachusetts. The masters, on the other hand, claimed that the Bible recorded and condoned the practice of slavery. 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. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/being-brought-africa-america, "On Being Brought from Africa to America Every single person that visits Poem Analysis has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. This creates a rhythm very similar to a heartbeat. Just as the American founders looked to classical democracy for models of government, American poets attempted to copy the themes and spirit of the classical authors of Greece and Rome. sable - black; (also a small animal with dark brown or black fur. In effect, she was attempting a degree of integration into Western culture not open to, and perhaps not even desired by, many African Americans. That this self-validating woman was a black slave makes this confiscation of ministerial role even more singular. Wheatley's poetry was heavily influenced by the poets she had studied, such as Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray. But, in addition, the word sets up the ideological enlightenment that Wheatley hopes will occur in the second stanza, when the speaker turns the tables on the audience. In the following excerpt, Balkun analyzes "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and asserts that Wheatley uses the rhetoric of white culture to manipulate her audience. She wrote them for people she knew and for prominent figures, such as for George Whitefield, the Methodist minister, the elegy that made her famous. The first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed. Phillis Wheatley was taken from what she describes as her pagan homeland of Africa as a young child and enslaved upon her arrival in America. Through the argument that she and others of her race can be saved, Wheatley slyly establishes that blacks are equal to whites. Popularity of "Old Ironsides": Oliver Wendell Holmes, a great American physician, and poet wrote, "Old Ironsides".It was first published in 1830. Taught my benighted soul to understand Generally in her work, Wheatley devotes more attention to the soul's rising heavenward and to consoling and exhorting those left behind than writers of conventional elegies have. It is not only "Negroes" who "may" get to join "th' angelic train" (7-8), but also those who truly deserve the label Christian as demonstrated by their behavior toward all of God's creatures. Although he, as well as many other prominent men, condemned slavery as an unjust practice for the country, he nevertheless held slaves, as did many abolitionists. She also means the aesthetic refinement that likewise (evidently in her mind at least) may accompany spiritual refinement. In fact, Wheatley's poems and their religious nature were used by abolitionists as proof that Africans were spiritual human beings and should not be treated as cattle. America's leading color-field painter, Rothko experi- enced the existential alienation of the postwar era. Parks, writing in Black World that same year, describes a Mississippi poetry festival where Wheatley's poetry was read in a way that made her "Blacker." This poem is a real-life account of Wheatleys experiences. In the lines of this piece, Wheatley addresses all those who see her and other enslaved people as less because of their skin tone. Indeed, racial issues in Wheatley's day were of primary importance as the new nation sought to shape its identity. Being made a slave is one thing, but having white Christians call black a diabolic dye, suggesting that black people are black because they're evil, is something else entirely. That there's a God, that there's a (122) $5.99. From this perspective, Africans were living in darkness. The final word train not only refers to the retinue of the divinely chosen but also to how these chosen are trained, "Taught to understand." Mary Beth Norton presents documents from before and after the war in. Patricia Liggins Hill, et. A soul in darkness to Wheatley means someone unconverted. How is it that she was saved? She took the surname of this man, as was the tradition, but her first name came from the slave ship The Phillis, which brought her to America. Patricia Liggins Hill, et. 1 Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition, ed. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 88,000 Such a person did not fit any known stereotype or category. While the use of italics for "Pagan" and "Savior" may have been a printer's decision rather than Wheatley's, the words are also connected through their position in their respective lines and through metric emphasis. Stock illustration from Getty Images. On this note, the speaker segues into the second stanza, having laid out her ("Christian") position and established the source of her rhetorical authority. Wheatley's use of figurative language such as a metaphor and an allusion to spark an uproar and enlighten the reader of how Great Britain saw and treated America as if the young nation was below it. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p.98. Each poem has a custom designed teaching point about poetic elements and forms. Such couplets were usually closed and full sentences, with parallel structure for both halves. 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. She wrote about her pride in her African heritage and religion. The first time Wheatley uses this is in line 1 where the speaker describes her "land," or Africa, as "pagan" or ungodly. also Observation on English Versification , Etc. 30 seconds. This essay investigates Jefferson's scientific inquiry into racial differences and his conclusions that Native Americans are intelligent and that African Americans are not. Religion was the main interest of Wheatley's life, inseparable from her poetry and its themes. 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. Form two groups and hold a debate on the topic. Rather than creating distinctions, the speaker actually collapses those which the "some" have worked so hard to create and maintain, the source of their dwindling authority (at least within the precincts of the poem). It is supposed that she was a native of Senegal or nearby, since the ship took slaves from the west coast of Africa. Wheatley is saying that her soul was not enlightened and she did not know about Christianity and the need for redemption. A sensation in her own day, Wheatley was all but forgotten until scrutinized under the lens of African American studies in the twentieth century. Betsy Erkkila describes this strategy as "a form of mimesis that mimics and mocks in the act of repeating" ("Revolutionary" 206). Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. Those who have contended that Wheatley had no thoughts on slavery have been corrected by such poems as the one to the Earl of Dartmouth, the British secretary of state for North America. She is both in America and actively seeking redemption because God himself has willed it. An online version of Wheatley's poetry collection, including "On Being Brought from Africa to America.". Thomas Jefferson's scorn (reported by Robinson), however, famously articulates the common low opinion of African capability: "Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Whately, but it could not produce a poet. Richard Abcarian (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is a professor of English emeritus at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for thirty-seven years. Mr. George Whitefield . In fact, although the lines of the first quatrain in "On Being Brought from Africa to America" are usually interpreted as celebrating the mercy of her white captors, they are more accurately read as celebrating the mercy of God for delivering her from sin. In the meanwhile, until you change your minds, enjoy the firefight! Today: Since the Vietnam War, military service represents one of the equalizing opportunities for blacks to gain education, status, and benefits. The reversal of inside and outside, black and white has further significance because the unredeemed have also become the enslaved, although they are slaves to sin rather than to an earthly master. 8May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. Look at the poems and letters of Phillis Wheatley, and find evidence of her two voices, African and American. Wheatley's English publisher, Archibald Bell, for instance, advertised that Wheatley was "one of the greatest instances of pure, unassisted Genius, that the world ever produced." She was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry and was brought to America and enslaved in 1761. 2002 America has given the women equal educational advantages, and America, we believe, will enfranchise them. Phillis Wheatley was brought through the transatlantic slave trade and brought to America as a child. Christians In alluding to the two passages from Isaiah, she intimates certain racial implications that are hardly conventional interpretations of these passages. Then, there's the matter of where things scattered to, and what we see when we find them. The poem is known as a superb literary piece written about a ship or a frigate. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. Through her rhetoric of performed ideology, Wheatley revises the implied meaning of the word Christian to include African Americans. Phillis Wheatley: Complete Writings (2001), which includes "On Being Brought from Africa to America," finally gives readers a chance to form their own opinions, as they may consider this poem against the whole body of Wheatley's poems and letters. It is no accident that what follows in the final lines is a warning about the rewards for the redeemed after death when they "join th' angelic train" (8). This failed due to doubt that a slave could write poetry. Levernier, James, "Style as Process in the Poetry of Phillis Wheatley," in Style, Vol. In fact, the discussions of religious and political freedom go hand in hand in the poem. Dr. Sewell", "On the Death of the Rev. Taking Offense Religion, Art, and Visual Culture in Plural Configurations Parks, Carole A., "Phillis Wheatley Comes Home," in Black World, Vo. In fact, it might end up being desirable, spiritually, morally, one day. Rather than a direct appeal to a specific group, one with which the audience is asked to identify, this short poem is a meditation on being black and Christian in colonial America. The last two lines refer to the equality inherent in Christian doctrine in regard to salvation, for Christ accepted everyone. ' On Being Brought from Africa to America' by Phillis Wheatley is a short, eight-line poem that is structured with a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD. The latter is implied, at least religiously, in the last lines. One may wonder, then, why she would be glad to be in such a country that rejects her people. She was baptized a Christian and began publishing her own poetry in her early teens. Too young to be sold in the West Indies or the southern colonies, she was . It is organized into four couplets, which are two rhymed lines of verse. For the unenlightened reader, the poems may well seem to be hackneyed and pedestrian pleas for acceptance; for the true Christian, they become a validation of one's status as a member of the elect, regardless of race . Her strategy relies on images, references, and a narrative position that would have been strikingly familiar to her audience. Saviour 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. Today: African Americans are educated and hold political office, even becoming serious contenders for the office of president of the United States. She places everyone on the same footing, in spite of any polite protestations related to racial origins. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. The lady doth protest too much, methinks is a famous quote used in Shakespeares Hamlet. 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. Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land. If it is not, one cannot enter eternal bliss in heaven. Phillis was known as a prodigy, devouring the literary classics and the poetry of the day. In addition, their color is consider evil. His professional engagements have involved extensive travel in North and South America, Asia, North Africa, and Europe, and in 1981 he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Foreign Languages Institute, Beijing. This idea sums up a gratitude whites might have expected, or demanded, from a Christian slave. There are many themes explored in this poem. The excuse for her race being enslaved is that it is thought to be evil and without a chance for salvation; by asserting that the black race is as competent for and deserving of salvation as any other, the justification for slavery is refuted, for it cannot be right to treat other divine souls as property. She also indicates, apropos her point about spiritual change, that the Christian sense of Original Sin applies equally to both races. The darker races are looked down upon. 1, 2002, pp. An allusion is an indirect reference to, including but not limited to, an idea, event, or person. Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century 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. Baker, Houston A., Jr., Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women's Writing, University of Chicago Press, 1991. Rigsby, Gregory, "Form and Content in Phillis Wheatley's Elegies," in College Language Association Journal, Vol. Phillis Wheatley is all about change. Negros Some view our sable race with scornful eye. Line 7 is one of the difficult lines in the poem. On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA The capitalization of AFRICA and AMERICA follows a norm of written language as codified in Joshua Bradley's 1815 text A Brief, Practical System of Punctuation To Which are added Rules Respecting the Uses of Capitals , Etc. Nevertheless, in her association of spiritual and aesthetic refinement, she also participates in an extensive tradition of religious poets, like George Herbert and Edward Taylor, who fantasized about the correspondence between their spiritual reconstruction and the aesthetic grace of their poetry. "Some view our sable race with a scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic dye." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain." Personification Simile Hyperbole Aphorism 814 Words. Of course, her life was very different. While in London to promote her poems, Wheatley also received treatment for chronic asthma. This style of poetry hardly appeals today because poets adhering to it strove to be objective and used elaborate and decorous language thought to be elevated. This view sees the slave girl as completely brainwashed by the colonial captors and made to confess her inferiority in order to be accepted. answer choices. She started writing poetry at age 14 and published her first poem in 1767. She knew redemption through this transition and banished all sorrow from her life. While she had Loyalist friends and British patrons, Wheatley sympathized with the rebels, not only because her owners were of that persuasion, but also because many slaves believed that they would gain their freedom with the cause of the Revolution. Starting deliberately from the position of the "other," Wheatley manages to alter the very terms of otherness, creating a new space for herself as both poet and African American Christian. This strategy is also evident in her use of the word benighted to describe the state of her soul (2). Could the United States be a land of freedom and condone slavery? 372-73. Slave, poet AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY The justification was given that the participants in a republican government must possess the faculty of reason, and it was widely believed that Africans were not fully human or in possession of adequate reason. This line is meaningful to an Evangelical Christian because one's soul needs to be in a state of grace, or sanctified by Christ, upon leaving the earth. She makes this clear by . This color, the speaker says, may think is a sign of the devil. This has been a typical reading, especially since the advent of African American criticism and postcolonial criticism. She was unusually precocious, and the family that enslaved her decided to give her an education, which was uncommon for an enslaved person. The poem's rhyme scheme is AABBCCDD and is organized into four couplets, which are paired lines of rhymed verse. These miracles continue still with Phillis's figurative children, black . Both black and white critics have wrestled with placing her properly in either American studies or African American studies. By writing the poem in couplets, Wheatley helps the reader assimilate one idea at a time. Figures of speech are literary devices that are also used throughout our society and help relay important ideas in a meaningful way. 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. In this, she asserts her religion as her priority in life; but, as many commentators have pointed out, it does not necessarily follow that she condones slavery, for there is evidence that she did not, in such poems as the one to Dartmouth and in the letter to Samson Occom. 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. LitCharts Teacher Editions. They signed their names to a document, and on that basis Wheatley was able to publish in London, though not in Boston. The speaker's declared salvation and the righteous anger that seems barely contained in her "reprimand" in the penultimate line are reminiscent of the rhetoric of revivalist preachers. Reading Wheatley not just as an African American author but as a transatlantic black author, like Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, the critics demonstrate that early African writers who wrote in English represent "a diasporic model of racial identity" moving between the cultures of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Shockley, Ann Allen, Afro-American Women Writers, 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide, G. K. Hall, 1988. There is no mention of forgiveness or of wrongdoing. She belonged to a revolutionary family and their circle, and although she had English friends, when the Revolution began, she was on the side of the colonists, reflecting, of course, on the hope of future liberty for her fellow slaves as well. But in line 5, there is a shift in the poem. If she had left out the reference to Cain, the poem would simply be asserting that black people, too, can be saved. Question 4 (2 points) Identify a type of figurative language in the following lines of Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought from Africa to America. Among her tests for aesthetic refinement, Wheatley doubtless had in mind her careful management of metrics and rhyme in "On Being Brought from Africa to America." 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. She was born in West Africa circa 1753, and thus she was only a few years younger than James Madison. It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Such authors as Wheatley can now be understood better by postcolonial critics, who see the same hybrid or double references in every displaced black author who had to find or make a new identity. The speaker begins by declaring that it was a blessing, a free act of God's compassion that brought her out of Africa, a pagan land. n001 n001. 1'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land. More on Wheatley's work from PBS, including illustrations of her poems and a portraitof the poet herself. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" (1773) has been read as Phillis Wheatley's repudiation of her African heritage of paganism, but not necessarily of her African identity as a member of the black race (e.g., Isani 65). Poet and World Traveler Poet [CDATA[ She traveled to London in 1773 (with the Wheatley's son) in order to publish her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Importantly, she mentions that the act of understanding God and Savior comes from the soul. Cain murdered his brother and was marked for the rest of time. The irony that the author, Phillis Wheatley, was highlighting is that Christian people, who are expected to be good and loving, were treating people with African heritage as lesser human beings. 27, No. What difficulties did they face in considering the abolition of the institution in the formation of the new government? At the age of 14, she published her first poem in a local newspaper and went on to publish books and pamphlets. Even before the Revolution, black slaves in Massachusetts were making legal petitions for their freedom on the basis of their natural rights. And she must have had in mind her subtle use of biblical allusions, which may also contain aesthetic allusions. "Taught my benighted soul to understand" (Line 2) "Once I redemption neither sought nor knew." (Line 4) "'Their colour is a diabolic die.'" (Line 6) "May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train." (Line 8) Report Quiz. The more thoughtful assertions come later, when she claims her race's equality. She had not been able to publish her second volume of poems, and it is thought that Peters sold the manuscript for cash. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. She now offers readers an opportunity to participate in their own salvation: The speaker, carefully aligning herself with those readers who will understand the subtlety of her allusions and references, creates a space wherein she and they are joined against a common antagonist: the "some" who "view our sable race with scornful eye" (5). In this poem Wheatley finds various ways to defeat assertions alleging distinctions between the black and the white races (O'Neale). HISTORICAL CONTEXT (including. For Wheatley's management of the concept of refinement is doubly nuanced in her poem. Wheatley was bought as a starving child and transformed into a prodigy in a few short years of training. . 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. Phillis Wheatley became famous in her time for her elegant poetry with Christian themes of redemption.
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