On being brought from Africa to America
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On being brought from Africa to America
The 1773 book of poems developed poems on diverse subjects, with different morals and religion. On being brought from Africa to America is a poem that was written and published in the 1773 book of poems that was written by Phillis Wheatley. The author Wheatley was considered and recognized as the first African American woman to have published a book. The author narrates on how she was born in West Africa and was transported to North America at the age of eight when she was sold to slavery. In Boston, she was purchased to the Wheatley family who taught her to read and write as they encouraged her talent in poetry (Gates,5). The poem uses ironic terms in the development of the plot of the poem that the author object to reflect on the woes Africans had faced from their motherland while being brought to America to work as slaves. The author Wheatley claimed to be redeemed and enlightened by God as her living in America had proved to be a blessing.
The author developed the plot of the story basically to narrate the slave ships horrors that people used to tell what and how it was like in their native land with emphasis that blacks may become Christians that people may be encouraged to bring Africans to America. In the first four lines of the poem, the author declares how it was indeed a blessing and an act of God’s compassion that brought her out of her native motherland that she referred to as a pagan land. This declaration was a way of acknowledging the virtues present in a Christian country like America despite the hardships and injustices they faced (Wheatley,12). The setting of this declaration was based on the slave ship from her continent Africa to another continent America whereby she implied that her motherland country practiced paganism and if it was due to the exposure to slavery and a new setting that made her aware of Christianity that was a sign of blessing to her.
Through the compassion of God, the experience of the slaves in the ship despite being horrendous and many people dying of illness as others drowned the poem did not mention emotional stress and physical voyage as success according to the author depended on luck or some form of intervention. Through the passage, Wheatley finds something positive through all the hardships that were Christianity which with other slaves they embraced it. Based on the content of the poem the message is powerful with themes of redemption that was portrayed by her declaration that she was saved from her pagan life being used (Wheatley,12). In the 5th to 8th line of the passage the author used the phrase that Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin’d, and join the’ angelic train” that disapproves the notion where the white man viewed Africa as a home of evil with nothing good expected to be generated from there (Wheatley,12). The previous line described how some viewed the Africans with a scornful eye that was translated to show how the Blackman’s color was useful and valuable making them desirable however the author followed with ‘diabolic die’ a phase that contrasted the previous meaning in which the Whiteman perception on the Africans that emphasized on the weakness rather than regarding their positives(Wheatley,12).
The poem on being brought from Africa to America shows how the author dwells more on the themes of Christianity bringing out other themes such as slavery and the hardships and injustices that were committed to them. Despite the Americans being rigid and not accepting that Africans were as good as them in their response whereby they refused to publish Wheatley’s text she proved that Africans could be educated and produce quality work just like the whites (Gates,5). Works cited
Gates, Henry. Phillis Wheatley: America’s Second Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003. Print
Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. New York: Cosimo Inc.,2005. Web.
