Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought From AFRICA To America

Throughout the poem the tone is earnest. Wheatley expresses intense seriousness when she begins to discuss religion and the temptation of sin. For example, she uses phrases such as “suppress the deadly serpent in its egg” and

Harriet Jacob and Phillis Wheatley, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl and On Being Brought from Africa to America both presents the existential conditions of being a black woman in a male dominated society. Despite their years span differences, both author present different, yet similar views of enslavement in America where black women struggle to reclaim their humanity and seek freedom within their society. For both Harriet and Phillis, both women used literacy as their voice to raise concern for the plight of enslaved African-Americans, more specifically the women.

Phillis Wheatley’s first sentence, in a Letter to Samson Occom, was very long. There was at least five points she made in this sentence alone. This one sentence took up three-fourths of this letter. Phillis Wheatley’s main points are within this sentence. She is recognizing that Samson Occom observed the ‘negros’ natural rights. She is arguing that these rights are bringing hope to the African people and making like for them better, and less chaotic. Lastly, the final point she makes in the first sentence is that God will deliver them as he did the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

Born in Senegal around 1753, Phillis Wheatley became an important American poetic figure. At the age of 8, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston on a slave ship and upon her arrival to Boston, she was quickly sold to John Wheatley (Bio). Under her new family, Phillis adopted the master’s last name, taken under the wife’s wing, and showed her deep intelligence. Even though suffering from poor health, Phillis’s intelligence did not go unnoticed; she received lessons in theology, English, Latin and Greek. Being a slave did not stop Phillis from learning and experiencing her life, she participated in the master’s family events and eventually became a family member. The irony in this situation is

In 1771, Wheatley composed her first major work, "On an elegy to evangelist George Whitefield." After realizing Wheatley’s potential for excellence, Susannah Wheatley arranged a London publication of Wheatley’s poems. As a result of this, prominent Bostonians verified the book’s author as being Black. Britons praised the book, but criticized Americans for keeping its author enslaved. At this time, Americans were only interested in benefiting White America, and were not prepared for the fact that Britons would criticize their slave policy. In 1774, she wrote a letter repudiating slavery, which was reprinted and

In a time when Africans were stolen from their native lands and brought through the middle passage to a land that claimed was a free country, a small African girl, who would later be known as Phillis Wheatley, was sold in Boston in 1761. In the speech, “The Miracle of Black Poetry in America”, written by June Jordan, a well respected black poet, professor and activist, wrote the speech in 1986, 200 years after Phillis walked the earth, to honor the legacy of the first black female poet for the people of the United States. Jordan, passionately alludes to the example of Phillis Wheatley’s life, to show the strength and perseverance of African-American people throughout difficult history and how they have overcome the impossible.

The phrase “art imitates life” can be used to describe many works of literature. Authors and the stories they write are often influenced by the changing world around them along with the evolution of new perspectives and ways of thinking regarding a subject. While this may sound simply like a common literary trope, it is of great importance and significance in many genres of literature. None has this been more apparent than in both the anti-slavery and women’s empowerment movement of the early to mid-1800s. Two major influence authors in their respective subjects, Frederick Douglass and Fanny Fern, were heavily influenced by the changing societal trends of the time of which they expressed through their writing. Douglass’s speech in particular “What to a Slave is the 4th of July?” was heavily influenced by Douglass’s own personal experience as a slave as well as the rising prominence of the abolitionist movement in the United States. By referencing the contradictory nature of the Constitution relegating personal freedoms exclusively to white, property owning males, Douglass bluntly references the systematic inequalities faced by people of color in the United States. Never would the works of an African American author, especially one challenging the established institution of slavery, gain so much attention if not for the anti-slavery movement and shifting perspectives surrounding it.

While some verses in Phillis Wheatly’s poem On Being Brought From Africa to America seem to fit Isabel’s story perfectly, others are the complete opposite of her view on life. Looking through the poem, the first couplet starts out representing the opposite of Isabel’s ideals while the last two are closer to them.

In the midst of a long passage on black people in his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson (who sniffed that [Phyllis] Wheatley’s poetry was “below the dignity of criticism”) proposed that black inferiority- “in the endowment of both body and mind”- might be an unchangeable law of nature. (181)

……In 1845 an extraordinary piece of work by Frederick Douglass was published “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”; this was the life of a man who through many adversities stood tall with his head in the heavens. Douglass was the more proactive abolitionist as his work was to demolish slavery while detailing his life experience as a slave and expressing is deep emotions and theory on slavery. In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” he expresses the way religion and its literature, the bible, had an effect not only on slavery but also with white Christianity. His position on slavery was strong and compelling. Douglass used powerful authoritative words from the start of his narrative to grasp our hold and attention and keep us enflamed while realizing God is embedded in the words. ……Phillis Wheatley overcame obstacles most people would quiver against. She showed us slavery and she showed us faith. In the poem, she tells us “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand” (Wheatley, line 1-2) Right from the beginning , Wheatley shows us religion through her use of subtle but powerful words. She uses the words “Mercy, Pagan

Phillis Wheatley was a young African American girl, brought to America at the age of seven to be a slave. In her time maturing in the Wheatley household, young Phillis grew rapidly intellectually and spiritually. Her faith in God and His divine nature is what inspired Wheatley to write- a prominent subject in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Another example of God being the backbone of her literary career is in her letter “To the University of Cambridge in New England.” Though Wheatley was a slave, she is known as one of the most prominent poets in the pre-nineteenth century America. Mr. Edgar Alan Poe,

Phillis Wheatley was sold into slavery when she was only 7 years old and sent to North America. She was purchased by a family in Boston—they then taught her how to read and write (Wikipedia, 2016). When she learned how to read, her writing thrived. The Wheatley’s saw that, and continued to encourage to continue on with learning and writing the poems. The people of Boston did not want to support an African-American poet, so Phillis sent her writings to a publisher in London (Poetry Foundation, 2016).

Hughes’s descriptive writing prompts the reader to visualize strong images of oppression in America. The speaker provides an image of an extremely suppressed group of people in the statement: “I am the red man driven from the land” (Hughes 21). This simple phrase creates a picture of the Native Americans being driven from their lands and forced to live on undesirable land, and, as a result, this invites the reader to acknowledge their severe oppression. Similarly, the speaker mentions the people who were “torn from Black Africa’s strand” (Hughes 50). This generates an image of boats packed with a depressing amount of broken people, waiting to be sold into slavery. These visual examples portray the severity of the situation that many Americans found themselves in. These

The title, "On Being Brought from Africa to the America" is nearly as frank as you can get. This poem is clearly about the writer’s thoughts about being transported as a slave from Africa such as, Gambia or Senegal areas that were not considered to be Christian land by America’s standards. The identification additionally makes known the concept of suggestion, or change. Phyllis makes use of metaphorical dialectal within the poem, and just as, she become converted from being a pagan to a Christian. The title tells us about being moved from one area to another. One would have observed that the word, brought is utilized and implemented not words such as, kidnapped or stolen. There were no other phrases utilized or implement to indicate the struggle that slaves persisted as they had been taken far away from their place of birth. Phyllis clearly uses a positive tone. “On Being Brought” is the passive form that Wheatley utilizes, in order to make a direct statement. She associates her coming to America as a worthy factor that, brings her to the religion of Christianity

Phillis Wheatley was a famous poet, her themes were mostly about her own experiences and feelings she had. She also took inspiration from the Bible, many other inspirational writings she knew. Wheatley comes from a background of a slave, she was sold at the age of seven and was brought to America by slave traders. Wheatley didn’t have an easy life at first but after coming to America she was bought by a good family, the Wheatley’s. Phillis was taught to read and write by the family, and after some time she took interest in the Bible, history, and British