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Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought From Africa To America

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Literary Analysis #1: “On Being Brought from Africa to America” Phillis Wheatley was born in Africa and brought to Boston in 1971, after being captured by slave traders at the age of eight (Funk & Wagnalls). “She had been purchased by a wealthy tailor, John Wheatley, for his wife, Susannah, as a companion, and named for the vessel that carried her to America” (Norton 401). She was taught how to read and write by her slave owners. Due to this advantage, she began to write poetry at an early age. One of her most notable poems was “On Being Brought from Africa to America”. In this poem, Wheatley subtly convey messages related to racism, Christianity, and salvation by using different similes and metaphors that symbolizes darkness. First, Wheatley uses the imagery term “benighted soul” …show more content…

She writes, “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, may be refined, and join the angelic train” (Norton 403). This simile, in the phrase "black as Cain," is used to compare the color black to Cain who had a mark put on him for his evil ways. In those lines, she reminds Christians that Blacks can also seek God, become spiritual, and saved. Strangely enough, although she references darkness with the use of “black as Cain”, she ends the poem with the words “angelic train” to imply to readers that there’s light at the end of the darkness. In conclusion, Wheatley uses the words benighted, sable, diabolic dye, and black as Cain to all reference darkness in different ways. She uses these words to convey messages related to Christianity, racism and salvation. Also, with the use of those words Wheatley describes her perspective at that time of her enslavement, coming from Africa to America. She may have used words related to darkness because, although, she was a privileged slave she, nevertheless, still was a slave and had to deal with the hardships that came along with having dark

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And by saying Cain was “black” due to his sin of killing his brother shows that Wheatley fully understood both Cain’s story and also how people viewed her race. But the subtle knife twist Wheatley leaves us with is the rhyming of Cain and “angelic train.” This is especially fascinating to me because Cain is seen by Christians as such a negative idea while the angelic train is such a positive idea, and by juxtaposing these two simply by rhyming them, she uses her words to echo their meaning, saying that even the blackest of black people can join in eternal life. And I think that literary technique is incredibly powerful as well as

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However, it is like she’s talking with the Christians, reminding them of who she is. The use of pun in this poem is seen often, the way she uses the word “Cain” it is either she’s talking about sugar Cain or Cain, Adam and Eve’s son. It recommends that the Christians see Negros as evil and non-human, thus using Cain as the murderer who kills his own brother cause of jealousy, making them “black as Cain”. However, Cain as sugar Cain leads us to the last line of the poem which is, “May be refined, and join the angelic train.” (Wheatley)

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