Summary Of On Being Brought From Africa To America

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In “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Phillis Wheatley speaks about her forced relocation to America, her experience with salvation, and uses this to make the point that even Africans could be saved. In the beginning, she speaks of how it was mercy that caused her to be brought to the alien nation, because if she had not been abducted, she would never have realized her need for a savior. “Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.” This viewpoint is quite interesting, as mercy is not a word one would typically assign to an institution like kidnapping and slavery. Wheatley sees her circumstances as a gift, as she would not have come to seek for and find salvation if she had not been taken. She also uses the poem to drive home a point