Have you ever wanted to tell someone or a group of people something about an injustice or wrong they have done, but don’t want to ruffle any feathers? Have you ever said something said in a very sarcastic way that has been taken one way, but truly meant another? It would be hard to imagine someone not being able to answer yes to at least one of those questions. So many times throughout the our lives or even a day we find feelings arising to the surface about different events, but we have to code our messages to where we know what we truly mean while others do not. Phillis Wheatley was no exception to this notion. Many scholars believe Wheatley to be one of few or possibly the only African American writer who spoke for slavery during the time. Yes, you read that right. A slave who is wrote nice and lovely things about her masters, and how grateful she was to be kidnapped to become a slave. Hopefully at this point you’re thinking “Huh?? That does not sound right at all.” If not, maybe at the conclusion at this blog your mind will be changed. During this edition of American Autograph I will explore one of Wheatley’s well know poems “On Being Brought from AFRICA to AMERICA” to see if the poem should be read at surface value or with a deeper masked meaning. I will explore the use of Wheatley’s choice of words along with the social aspects that would have surrounded her writings of the time. First let's begin with a little background on the mother of African American literature and a reading of "On Being Brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" by watching the video below. Now that you have a little background on Wheatley and have heard a soft-spoken reading of her poem let’s explore the meaning.
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. Wheatley opens her poem with ‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land’. As the video states Phillis Wheatley was taken at the age of 7 from her native land in Africa. James Edward Ford III of Occidental College notes in his study of Phillis Wheatley that it is believed she was taken from the Muslim region of Senegambia and was bought by John and Susannah Wheatley. (pg. 181) The Wheatleys were devout Christians and once seeing Wheatley’s aptitude for learning began to teach her to read and write. By training Wheatley in the English arts it was an opportunity for the family to guide Phillis in declaring how lucky and thankful she was to have a family purchase her and bring her to meet God almighty. However from findings from Ford and other scholars such as David Waldstreicher we have learned Wheatley coming from a Muslim region would have had a religious relationship with God before being captured into slavery. So why the use of ‘Pagan’ when she in fact was not taken from a Pagan land? The use of the word Pagan in Wheatley’s poem suggest a under civilized, Neanderthal type people who do not know God and understand the Christian doctrine. In an early unpublished poem Wheatley writes ““Must Ethiopians be imploy’d for you / Greatly rejoice if any good I do,” (Waldstreicher, pg. 722). In both these verses Wheatley speaks to the notion that African Americans do not need to be purchased to find God, and that she was very well able to think on her own right where she was. Moving into the next two verses “Taught my benighted soul to understand, that there's a God, that there's a Saviour too” reinforces the first line of text with the use of ‘benighted soul’. June Jordan, a well know Jamaican American poet and essayist claims the use of benighted to be a “nonsense word choice because it means being surrounded and preyed upon by darkness and clearly reverses what had happened to the African child, surrounded by and captured by the greed of white men” (Jordan, 178). In doing this Wheatley once again speaks to the idea Americans concocted about the African Americans they brought to America had no morals or intellect to understand just how barbaric and uncivilized they were, when in reality the idea of capturing humans and making them slaves through force showed the true benighted souls. In the eyes of the Whitley’s this capture was not an injustice but rather a justice in helping Africans such as Phillis not just know the Word, but help slaves find the Savior Jesus to rescue them from the awfully unmoral lives they must have been living. Wheatley answers “Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.” There was no reason for Wheatley to be saved from the ‘primitive’ life she was living. Wheatley could have very well been living with her family, and being from a Muslim region had a religious association and lived a religious and knowledgeable life. The use of “sought” suggest an effort would have had to have been put forth to find this Christian redemption, which was one Wheatley did not make or feel the need to. It was only because Wheatley’s beliefs did not align with the American Christian belief that the ‘poor child’ must be saved and redeemed. In today’s standards it would be quite similar to the uneasy feelings many Christians are having as Islam is rapidly growing in the United Sates and many Islamic sects are looking to convert or bring on board more believers, however at least in general this has not been as forced will. From there Wheatley shifts her focus to directly focus on those who feel the need to so desperately save the souls of African slaves. “Some view our sable race with scornful eye” the attention is now solely on African Americans described as sable or black fur which once again alludes to their uncivilized lives. Wheatley goes even further in her next verse to even say African Americans have a diabolic die or coloring from Satan himself. However following shortly after Wheatley writes an unusual list including Christians, Negros and list them as black as Cain. Cain referencing the brotherhood of Cain and Able and Abel’s obedience lead Cain to kill his brother. By using this analogy Wheatley gets right to the point of no matter Christian, black, white, polka dotted, we are all the same and all have wronged in Gods eyes, which ties to the final line of riding the angelic train. While the White Christian Americans looked so downwardly on the African American population they too need refinement if they want to make it to Heaven in God’s graces. This poem can very easily be read in a soft way that leads readers to believe she backs the laws of slavery and is grateful for it. If she is truly grateful for the capture and refinement why choose words like diabolic or black as Cain? She chooses many words that have quite dark meanings that could have easily been substituted with less harsh words. By digging in line by line it becomes more clear the poems aim is at the hearts and hypocrisy. Another crucial detail to determining whether “On Being Brought from AFRICA to AMERICA” should be read at face value or as a mask is by taking a closer look at society’s reaction at the time. At the time Phillis Wheatley wrote her book “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” no Boston publishing company would back Wheatley’s writings. It was not until she went to England in 1773 that she found a publisher for her work (Phillis Wheatley). In 1781 Wheatley also wrote a poem titled “Liberty and Peace” which went unpublished along with a 2nd edition of writing (Phillis Wheatley). The question is if Wheatley’s writings were truly sincere in their meanings, would a wealthy slave owner of the time have backed her writings in an effort to justify his slave owning. To have a white man say slavery is an acceptable form of economic gain would not have been the same as having a slave themselves say they were grateful for being a slave. So why was this backing not there? Wheatley after being released from slavery lived and died in poverty. If she had been the only slave to speak goodness about slavery surely someone would have supported her in some financial way, or allowed for her 2nd edition to be published. There are too many conceptions and interpretations of Phillis Wheatley’s works that in todays age that don’t quite jive up. Unfortunately with Wheatley’s young passing, little is known of any later writings that may provide a firmer interpretation to what Wheatley’s ultimate goal would have been. Citations III, James Edward Ford. “The Difficult Miracle: Reading Phillis Wheatley against the Master’s Discourse.” CR: The New Centennial Review, vol. 18, no. 3, Winter 2018, pp.181–223. EBSCOhost, doi:10.14321/crnewcentrevi.18.3.0181. Jordan, June. 2002. The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry or Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley. In Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays, 174–85. New York: Basic Civitas Books. “Phillis Wheatley.” Boston Womens Heritage Trail, bwht.org/phillis-wheatley/. WALDSTREICHER, DAVID. “Ancients, Moderns, and Africans: Phillis Wheatley and the Politics of Empire and Slavery in the American Revolution.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 37, no. 4, Winter 2017, pp. 701–733. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/jer.2017.0068.
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AuthorKayla Keeling ArchivesCategoriesBe sure to click the link above for more insight to Britain's historical writings
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