Phillis Wheatley, America’s first African-American poetess interestingly in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” describes the positivity of being an American slave. What is astonishing is that she is not complaining about her life as a slave because she says that as a result of being a slave in America, she is now accustomed to the great religion of Christianity.
The readers are amazed by her unexpected gratitude resulting from American slavery while the title suggests that this poem is a complaint of an individual who has been forced to work for the whites. Wheatley throughout the poem tells about the change in her belief system and she also tells that it was only after coming to America that she realized how Africans are treated outside their country. The poetess says that it is through Christianity that she is now aware of the fact that even she can get rid of her sins and she is also reminding the white people the fact that even minorities can join them in heaven.
“Benighted” is the best word used in the poem. Benighted literally means being in a state of darkness or night or overtaken by darkness or night. The poetess uses the term not only to indicate the color of her skin but also to reflect the current slave status of her life. By using the phrase “mercy brought me” and also by using the title “On Being Brought from America to Africa”, the poetess indicates the fact that she was kidnapped but at the same time, she also emphasizes the fact that she is also in the hands of mercy. She has related slave trade with mercy. Despite being positive about the fact that she is a slave she also reminds the readers the fact that Africans are not born to be enslaved; they possess equal rights as any other human being.
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The poetess has made a very interesting choice of words by using the words such as “sable” which is kind of a description of her color, “Diabolic die” which means a side of triangle trade which includes slaves in the bottom, “angelic train” refers to both black and whites. Phillis Wheatley in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” actually describes herself as a teacher and a preacher and at times also a mistress and a master.
Each line of the poem rhymes with the next one and thus the pattern of aabbccdd is formed. The first three sentences: “ ‘TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand, that there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too” are interesting because the first line which depicts the poetess’ past, the second line reflects her present and the third line reflects her future. A reader’s heart is filled with pain while reading the poem but the poetess is majorly depicting the positivity that has arrived in her life as a result of coming into contact with Christianity which would not have been possible without coming to America.