"Upon Being Brought from Africa to America"
By
Phillis Wheatley
Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students of Marymount University, James West, Amy Ridderhof
18
On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA.broughtbrought
The title of one Wheatley's most
(in)famous poems, "On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" alludes to the
experiences of many Africans who became subject to the transatlantic slave trade. Wheatley uses biblical references and
direct address to appeal to a Christian audience, while also defending the
ability of her "sable race" to become "refin'd" through Christian theology.
Henry Louis Gates, who in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self (1989)
situates Wheatley as an important voice in the eighteenth-century debate about
natural human rights, summarizes the "recurrent suggestion that Wheatley has
remained aloof from matters that were in any sense racial, or more correctly,
'positively' racial," as a "misreading" (74-75). Notable for the complexity of
its brief discussion of blackness in the Christian slaveholding American
republic, this poem in particular is frequently criticized for its apparent
rejection of Africa and African-ness. However, Wheatley was working within a
non-free context, and her critique of slavery is mediated by Christianity
acquired as part of her enslavement. For a fuller exploration of Wheatley’s
poem, see Authority and Female Authorship in Colonial America,
by William Scheick (especially chapter 4). The image included here,
via the
British Library, shows a diagram of the Brookes' slave ship
(c.1801). - [JW]
1'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
2Taught my benighted soul to understand
3That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
4Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
5 Some viewsomesomeWheatley's description
of those who "view our sable race with scornful eye" (5) is a clear
rejection of what Lena Hill
describes as "ignorant" interpretations of "visual blackness"
(37-38), as is her attribution of speech in direct discourse:
"'Their color is a diabolic die'" (6). Henry Louis Gates argues that
Wheatley's very presence as an author complicated assumptions of "natural"
inferiority. For more about this topic, see Gates' Figures in
Black and Walt Nott's discussion of Wheatley's public
persona in "From
'Uncultivated Barbarian' to 'Poetical Genius': The Public Presence of
Phillis Wheatley."
- [TH] our sable race with scornful eye,
6"Their colour is a diabolic die."
7Remember, Christians, Negros,
black as CainCain,CainThe phrase "black as Cain" is a distortion of the
biblical idea of the mark of Cain (Genesis
4:15) and was used as justification for the enslavement of people
of color. Many scholars point out that this was Wheatley's "most maligned
poem," (Hill
37) which is ultimately about the inclusion of Africans in the
"Christian family" and her critique of "ignorant" interpretations of "visual
blackness" (37-38). For an interesting contemporary read of the mark of Cain
in anti-abolitionist discourse, see Josiah Priest's Slavery as it Relates to the Negro (1843), where he
rejects the possibility that dark-skinned peoples could be related to Adam
by blood (134-136). For a larger reading of Wheatley's use of blackness and
the role of blackness in the early American imagination, see Lena Hill's
chapter "Witnessing Moral Authority in Pre-Abolition Literature," from Visualizing
Blackness and the Creation of the African American Literary
Tradition (2014)
- [JW]
8May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
The title of one Wheatley's most
(in)famous poems, "On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" alludes to the
experiences of many Africans who became subject to the transatlantic slave trade. Wheatley uses biblical references and
direct address to appeal to a Christian audience, while also defending the
ability of her "sable race" to become "refin'd" through Christian theology.
Henry Louis Gates, who in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self (1989)
situates Wheatley as an important voice in the eighteenth-century debate about
natural human rights, summarizes the "recurrent suggestion that Wheatley has
remained aloof from matters that were in any sense racial, or more correctly,
'positively' racial," as a "misreading" (74-75). Notable for the complexity of
its brief discussion of blackness in the Christian slaveholding American
republic, this poem in particular is frequently criticized for its apparent
rejection of Africa and African-ness. However, Wheatley was working within a
non-free context, and her critique of slavery is mediated by Christianity
acquired as part of her enslavement. For a fuller exploration of Wheatley’s
poem, see Authority and Female Authorship in Colonial America,
by William Scheick (especially chapter 4). The image included here,
via the
British Library, shows a diagram of the Brookes' slave ship
(c.1801). - [JW]
1'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
2Taught my benighted soul to understand
3That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
4Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
5 Some viewsomesomeWheatley's description
of those who "view our sable race with scornful eye" (5) is a clear
rejection of what Lena Hill
describes as "ignorant" interpretations of "visual blackness"
(37-38), as is her attribution of speech in direct discourse:
"'Their color is a diabolic die'" (6). Henry Louis Gates argues that
Wheatley's very presence as an author complicated assumptions of "natural"
inferiority. For more about this topic, see Gates' Figures in
Black and Walt Nott's discussion of Wheatley's public
persona in "From
'Uncultivated Barbarian' to 'Poetical Genius': The Public Presence of
Phillis Wheatley."
- [TH] our sable race with scornful eye,
6"Their colour is a diabolic die."
7Remember, Christians, Negros,
black as CainCain,CainThe phrase "black as Cain" is a distortion of the
biblical idea of the mark of Cain (Genesis
4:15) and was used as justification for the enslavement of people
of color. Many scholars point out that this was Wheatley's "most maligned
poem," (Hill
37) which is ultimately about the inclusion of Africans in the
"Christian family" and her critique of "ignorant" interpretations of "visual
blackness" (37-38). For an interesting contemporary read of the mark of Cain
in anti-abolitionist discourse, see Josiah Priest's Slavery as it Relates to the Negro (1843), where he
rejects the possibility that dark-skinned peoples could be related to Adam
by blood (134-136). For a larger reading of Wheatley's use of blackness and
the role of blackness in the early American imagination, see Lena Hill's
chapter "Witnessing Moral Authority in Pre-Abolition Literature," from Visualizing
Blackness and the Creation of the African American Literary
Tradition (2014)
- [JW]
8May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
Footnotes
_broughtThe title of one Wheatley's most
(in)famous poems, "On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" alludes to the
experiences of many Africans who became subject to the transatlantic slave trade. Wheatley uses biblical references and
direct address to appeal to a Christian audience, while also defending the
ability of her "sable race" to become "refin'd" through Christian theology.
Henry Louis Gates, who in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self (1989)
situates Wheatley as an important voice in the eighteenth-century debate about
natural human rights, summarizes the "recurrent suggestion that Wheatley has
remained aloof from matters that were in any sense racial, or more correctly,
'positively' racial," as a "misreading" (74-75). Notable for the complexity of
its brief discussion of blackness in the Christian slaveholding American
republic, this poem in particular is frequently criticized for its apparent
rejection of Africa and African-ness. However, Wheatley was working within a
non-free context, and her critique of slavery is mediated by Christianity
acquired as part of her enslavement. For a fuller exploration of Wheatley’s
poem, see Authority and Female Authorship in Colonial America,
by William Scheick (especially chapter 4). The image included here,
via the
British Library, shows a diagram of the Brookes' slave ship
(c.1801).
The title of one Wheatley's most
(in)famous poems, "On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" alludes to the
experiences of many Africans who became subject to the transatlantic slave trade. Wheatley uses biblical references and
direct address to appeal to a Christian audience, while also defending the
ability of her "sable race" to become "refin'd" through Christian theology.
Henry Louis Gates, who in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self (1989)
situates Wheatley as an important voice in the eighteenth-century debate about
natural human rights, summarizes the "recurrent suggestion that Wheatley has
remained aloof from matters that were in any sense racial, or more correctly,
'positively' racial," as a "misreading" (74-75). Notable for the complexity of
its brief discussion of blackness in the Christian slaveholding American
republic, this poem in particular is frequently criticized for its apparent
rejection of Africa and African-ness. However, Wheatley was working within a
non-free context, and her critique of slavery is mediated by Christianity
acquired as part of her enslavement. For a fuller exploration of Wheatley’s
poem, see Authority and Female Authorship in Colonial America,
by William Scheick (especially chapter 4). The image included here,
via the
British Library, shows a diagram of the Brookes' slave ship
(c.1801)._someWheatley's description
of those who "view our sable race with scornful eye" (5) is a clear
rejection of what Lena Hill
describes as "ignorant" interpretations of "visual blackness"
(37-38), as is her attribution of speech in direct discourse:
"'Their color is a diabolic die'" (6). Henry Louis Gates argues that
Wheatley's very presence as an author complicated assumptions of "natural"
inferiority. For more about this topic, see Gates' Figures in
Black and Walt Nott's discussion of Wheatley's public
persona in "From
'Uncultivated Barbarian' to 'Poetical Genius': The Public Presence of
Phillis Wheatley."
_CainThe phrase "black as Cain" is a distortion of the
biblical idea of the mark of Cain (Genesis
4:15) and was used as justification for the enslavement of people
of color. Many scholars point out that this was Wheatley's "most maligned
poem," (Hill
37) which is ultimately about the inclusion of Africans in the
"Christian family" and her critique of "ignorant" interpretations of "visual
blackness" (37-38). For an interesting contemporary read of the mark of Cain
in anti-abolitionist discourse, see Josiah Priest's Slavery as it Relates to the Negro (1843), where he
rejects the possibility that dark-skinned peoples could be related to Adam
by blood (134-136). For a larger reading of Wheatley's use of blackness and
the role of blackness in the early American imagination, see Lena Hill's
chapter "Witnessing Moral Authority in Pre-Abolition Literature," from Visualizing
Blackness and the Creation of the African American Literary
Tradition (2014)