The Peoms of Phillis Wheatly

Simone Sutton

9/15/09

AP English III

“Phillis Wheatley”

Phillis Wheatley was an African woman brought to America. Compared to other Africans she had a better time of it. The family who bought her obviously saw her worth as a human being and instead of condemning her to a life time of unending servitude, they educated her. Something white women didn’t have the chance to get. Her works were very popular and highly respected scholars like Ben Franklin thought she was awesome.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

The way Wheatley describes it, being uprooted from your home land and sold into slavery was a good thing. Considering her experiences after being brought over, one would expect her to think this way. She was a lucky slave, being brought from a continent with high temperatures and having to work for your own survival into a world where you can learn. Also according to her bio she was very sickly so being brought the New World where she could receive better medical care she might feel this way.

She regards Africa as an evil ‘pagan’ land, Darkness, Evil, etc. Then being converted to Christianity in America seeing the light of Salvation. But being brought from the land of Evil is not enough. “Some view our sable color with a scornful eye”, meaning that the people of colonial America thought their skin color was a mark of cures and reinforced by the following line “… black as Cain”. This line is a reference to the story of Cain and Abel in the bible that says that Cain’s skin was marked black as punishment for killing his brother Abel. This shows that racial prejudice based off of skin color was around even back then. This was the Americans Excuse for enslaving the African people. This next line: “May be refined and join the angelic train” suggest that it is the Africans fault they are the way they are but that there is still a chance for them to be saved. ‘May be refined…’ suggests that they are still a work in progress, that there is something underneath the ‘diabolical’ skin worth saving. This is like saying that they should be sanded down in to something smoother and more Angelic. The last part of this line “… and join the angelic train”. This suggests that in the end we all look the same so that we can be in the same train together, assuming that train means a group.

This poem speaks a lot but I can’t help but shake the feeling of sarcasm coming off of the words. I can’t imagine a woman as intelligent as Wheatley as truly believing that who she was born as wrong. That if she was not sold into slavery than her soul would be damned for eternity. But this might be the effects of being converted into Christianity back in the 18^th century. This poem might be a satire on how Africans so easily surrendered their lives and culture to the slave traders.

To His Excellency General Washington

This poem starts off with a little introduction written by Wheatley acknowledging George Washington. Her choice of shows her large vocabulary and intelligence, but she still notes how she can’t be perfect, that she still has the errors of a human.

This poem seems to be congratulating Washington for being appointed General. But with the symbolism and glorious descriptions she might as well be referring to him as a King or a God. I’m sure he was flattered. The poem is also encouraging Washington to lead the country into success.