Something About Phillis Wheatly

'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:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye.

“Their color is a diabolic dye.”

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,

May be refined, and join the angelic train.

In the poem “On being brought from Africa to America” Phillis Wheatly seems to be indicating a measure of gratitude for her and her people being brought to America as they can now find Christianity. She describes her enslavement as “mercy” (1) and her home as “pagan” (1) indicating she recognizes her new home (America) as a source of truth and better teachings. She indicates her nonchalance towards slavery with “some view. . . with scornful eye” (6) suggesting only a portion of slavers are bad and again reminds the reader that through this slavery “Negroes. . . May be refined,” (7-8). However by examining the words she chooses to use and how she employs those words in specific relations to each other other ideas may arise. Phillis actually condemns Christians who proliferate slavery through her use of nouns for her people. She decries the ideology that her people are being saved through slavery.

Phillis describes slaves in a variety of ways. She uses the word “pagan” (1), indicating polytheism and more particularly a delight in sensual pleasure and material goods. This seems to support the view that she approves of Christians taking slaves and teaching them the gospel. However the word pagan to describe her native people, who lived without the conveniences of Europe, may indicate that the slavers are being pagan as they are undertaking slavery for material reason. She then uses the word “benighted” (2) to describe her soul. This can show a contrast in that her words seem to indicate that her African culture lacked the light of Christianity but the travel from Africa the America, the middle passage, is historically seen as one of the most horrific sea voyages imaginable, done at the will of Christian slavers bringing her from the darkness of Africa to the light of America. She also uses the word “sable” (5) to describe her color. This word denotes the color black, evidently, however it also connotes the black worn while mourning. She is describing the color of her race as the color of mourning implying that Christianity has brought a knowledge of the afterlife to her people, but also a deep mourning for so many lost to slavery. This self description is contrasted in the next line where she quotes an anonymous speaker calling her race the color of “diabolic dye” (6) or colored by the devil. The same people who are using Christianity as a justification for slavery are calling the slaves devilish. By doing so she questions the motives of the supposed Christians thus engaged. She then uses a well known allusion, that of “Negroes, black as Cain,” (7) wherein people from Africa are linked to the first murderer of the Bible. This final phrase about her race is the most poignant. Only a Christian would know enough to make the claim, but any true Christian would not link an entire race millennium later to a biblical event as justification for perpetrating new sins on that people.

In her exploration of the flawed ideology of the slavers she uses phrases to communicate her ideas. Every line of her concise poem can be understood to establish the falseness of her Christian slavers ideals. “Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land.” As previously explained the word pagan connotes materialism. Her slavers consider it a mercy to be brought from Africa to America. They may have a variety of reasons to believe so. However if pagan (or the idea of materialism) is applied to the slavers, then the mercy can be as well. So the falseness of their belief is the claim they are bringing mercy to the Africans, when they are seeking mercy for European economic crisis. Plantation farming could be incredibly profitable but it needed a cheap labor resource. The enslavement of Africa was a mercy to the plantation owners looking for that labor. The second line is coupled with the first, and linked by the idea of mercy. However the third line completes the point of the second, somewhat breaking literary tradition. “[Mercy] Taught my benighted soul to understand / That there's a God, that there's a Savior too:” (2-3). These lines claim that mercy taught her dark soul about God. However understanding that the mercy is referring to the mercy that the slavers are enjoying results in a different comprehension. She seems to be pointing out the vast hypocrisy of the Christian slavery experience. The people who were enslaving her for their own benefit were claiming a belief in a greater being, not just a God but a Savior too. A personal example of excellence and moral correctness, obviously being ignored by the people teaching her. She closes this thought with the line “Once I redemption neither sought nor knew” (4). Redemption from sin was not something she considered before being enslaved, before seeing the sins of the Christians who taught her their better way.

The next lines leave the subtle condemnation for a more direct critique. “Some view our sable race with scornful eye. / 'Their color is a diabolic dye,'” (5-6) wherein she directly references to the slavers. They look at black people as devilish. As previously mentioned she uses the word sable indicating her feelings of mourning in this statement. The supposed statement made by some is that the color is a dye. This suggests something was done to them, that they are the same underneath the dye. The slavers by making this statement are acknowledging they are the same as their slaves, just with a different dye. They may not even conscientiously recognize this similarity but by their statement their true feelings are clear and another hypocrisy is made clear. They look at their slaves as devils but know that any devilishness is a result of an outside force and see the common humanity. In the line “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,” (7) the Christians are finely referenced. In this she alludes to the mark of Cain as a mark of darkness. Some Christians used this idea, that Negroes are descendents of Cain, as justification for ill treatment. They reasoned that God still wanted them to punish these descendents. However Phillis uses the phrase black as Cain, not black like Cain. Here she cast doubt on this idea, as there was little evidence to support it. The color similarity was at most coincidental and a weak justification. Her final line finishes this idea. She first compares Negroes to Cain, but finishes by comparing them to angels. “[Negroes] May be refined, and join the angelic train” (8). Here she asserts that her people, like white people, may be refined and find a place in heaven. She extends this to claiming a place among the angels, the highest servants of God. This honor and glory is something she know her white, Christian, slavers will never be extended.

Some readers reason that Phillis started the female literary tradition in America as well as the African-American literary tradition. By reading her work closely her skill is made evident. She writes poetry so that interpretation is possible and many meaning are made clear. The timelessness of her work gives credence to her work being influential enough to start a tradition. She was historically forgotten for a number of years, but she was remembered and has been a part of the cannon since that time. Her writing is fascinating and deserves to be read.