Phillis Wheatey

Gustavo Quintero
English 48A
October 18, 2007
Journal #14 Phillis Wheatley


Quote:
"Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refined, and join the angelic train."

Summary:
Phillis Wheatley is stating very bluntly just how hypocritical white's who own slaves are. The black are the complete equals to the whites because of the faith and religion that hey both believe in.


Response:

The power of this quote is very extraordinary. The most amazing thing about this quote is that it was written by Wheatley as a teenager. She dared to confront the very issue that was considered taboo in her times. She did not sugar coat anything she wrote, she made sure that all people that read her works knew what she felt about slavery.As Scott pointed out in our class discussion, Wheatley has a very similar demeanor as Anne Bradstreet did in her poem "The author to her book". They both appear to be very humble until the end of the poem when they hit the reader with their one two punch.

The power that she exhibits with this quote is immense. For a very young African American writer to be writing about slavery as she did is amazing. It seems at first glance that by reading,"On Being Brought form Africa to America", the poem has a very humble and merciful tone. She says how merciful it was that she was taken form her "pagan" native land and brought to Mighty America. She goes on to say how it was the hand of God that brought her over. Yet this is not the ultimate message of the poem. The ultimate message of the poem is that as Christan's all blacks and whites are equal.This seems to be almost ironic. Ironic in that the whites kept the blacks as slaves yet they let them practice and pray Christianity. This also makes all whites who practice Christianity hypocrites.

The poem message of slavery being wrong is made even more powerful because of the fact that Wheatley is able to tackle this subject in just eight lines. This gives the reader a more powerful impact of the message. Wheatley uses this sudden turn at the end of the poem as a powerful statement. She calls out all slave owning people as hypocrites to their faces.