19 pages • 38 minutes read
Phillis WheatleyOn Being Brought from Africa to America
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1773A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Mercy
The motif of mercy is an essential component of “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Introduced in the first line, mercy metaphorically replaces the presence of the literal slave ships that ousted African people from their homeland. Some critics claim that Wheatley’s use of mercy reveals an internalized racism. The argument suggests that Wheatley views her abduction into slavery as an act of grace. This is further compounded by the Christian elements of the poem: particularly, the mention of a savior. It is possible that as a Christian, Wheatley believed her soul was saved from its heathenism (and therefore, eternal damnation) through her enslavement and subsequent religious conversion. In this reading, the function of mercy is to convey that Wheatley believes African slaves are being “saved” by Eurocentric industry, beliefs, and ideals and that essentially, Africans need to be rescued.
However, others argue that Wheatley’s usage of mercy undercuts this reading—especially if read with an ironic slant. Mercy, in its definition, is compassion or forbearance shown to an offender or one subject to one’s power. Therefore, mercy could be interpreted as an awareness of a power imbalance. Subjected to the power of white dominance, Wheatley was quite literally at the mercy of her captors. If this reading of mercy is applied, then its usage complicates the abovementioned analysis and opens alternative readings of the poem.
Blackness
Wheatley’s race was of primary concern; as such, her descriptions of blackness are central to understanding the racial politics of the poem. Adjectives such as “benighted” (Line 2) and “sable” (Line 5) are used as skin tone qualifiers that also speak to the inherent qualities of the nouns being described (i.e. “soul” (Line 2) and “race” (Line 5)). Wheatley, ever-conscious of the sentiments of her time, describes blackness as “a diabolic die” (Line 6) and attributes this opinion to an external voice. She even relates blackness to the biblical figure of Cain—son of Adam and Eve—who was “marked” by God after he murdered his brother Abel. Cain’s curse was used as a justification for American slavery. His “mark,” interpreted by whites as black skin, was God’s punishment; his curse was that his descendants would forever be “a servant of servants.” Wheatley clearly does not equate blackness with evil or sin. Rather, she invokes these associations to further the impact of her final claim that ultimately, slavery and the contempt of others based on skin color, is immoral.
Knowledge
The speaker of “On Being Brought from Africa to America” is writing from a place of personal experience. It is insinuated that prior to being brought to America, there were aspects of the world of which the speaker was unaware or had not yet been introduced. The voyage becomes a metaphor akin to the opening of Pandora’s Box—the acquisition of knowledge both good and bad. The good can be attributed to the speaker’s faith, her love of language, her education, and ability to construct arguments and employ reason. The bad is evident in her understanding of how the world views African people and includes her experiences of enslavement, subjugation, and racism. Had Wheatley not been seized from Africa, slavery and racism may not have been within her realm of experience. On the flipside of this, literacy and the craft of poetry may not have been fostered. Wheatley is knowledgeable to both white expectation and Black reality: the understanding of each attained at a price.
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By Phillis Wheatley
