Phillis Wheatley

Habibat Oguntade
Ap English III
9/14/09
Phillis Wheatley
With the use of few sentences, Wheatley describes her attitude towards her condition and experience of enslavement, both coming from Africa to America, as well as the people who considered her race negatively. She seems to fall in the nationalism category. Due to the fact that nationalists are very patriotic, they always feel they need to take pride in what belongs to them, if they are ever going to make changes. People like this possess feelings of emotion, and want to be independent. In the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, Wheatley’s theme centers around darkness, which represents, her past, her skin color, and black people as a race. She became educated and was able to read and write at the end of the day. Wheatley voices out her opinion in several ways.
In the beginning of her poem ““On Being Brought from Africa to America”, Wheatley credits her slavery has positive, because it has changed her from being impious to being dedicated to her religion, which is Christianity. “Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land” (line 1). In these quote she personifies mercy, which shows that mercy is of a great significance to her. This is the mercy that has encouraged and showed her how to be religious. Wheatley believed that it was God’s mercy that brought her away from the land that served and worship idols. Her master was able to encourage her to learn how to read and write. Many people value support from others, if they are actually encouraged by others, then they will be inspired to do the best they can. It helped her to be able to express herself on paper, since she has been thought how to read and write.
The poem also focuses on providence and salvation, especially Phillis Wheatley’s conversion to Christianity , as a consequence of surviving the infamous middle passage, from Africa to America. She might have been criticized for defending the slaved trade, as a means of civilizing Africans brought to America. “ Thought my benighted to understand” (line 2). The word benighted means to be overtaken by night or darkness. This shows that she has been in a state of intellectual darkness, therefore, she makes her skin color and her original state of ignorance of Christian religion parallel situations. Despite the fact that various individuals are opposed to slavery, Wheatley still sees it as a positive thing, because she knows how slaves can later benefit, even though it might take a while.
In conclusion, Phillis Wheatley is said to be a slave who actually benefited from being one. Apart from the fact that she learned how to read and write like other white people, she also had the opportunity to change her life around, and become more pious. She moved to the righteous side of life, which would have made her complacent. She did not have to get rid of her nationality and become intimidated by the white people, instead, she did what she had to do with a lot of endurance and became outstandingly successful.