So what does any of this have to do with Phillis Wheatley's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America"? Few groups in our history have had to endure re-invention--both forced and self-willed--as African-Americans. Slavery, for example, involved more than economic oppression and forced labor; it also involved attempting to force a slave identity upon the slaves (as Douglass pointed out in his narrative). But as is often the case, slaves, as a culturally marginalized and so culturally powerless group, frequently developed a subversive identity: a surface image to present to those in power, that would hide what was going on beneath the image. The black philosopher and sociologist W.E.B. Dubois called it "double consciousness": the need for African-Americans to be simultaneously aware of their own identities and how white culture looked at them, and thus be ready to shift identities depending upon the context. As the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar put it, "we wear the mask that grins and lies."
At first reading Wheatley's poem can seem more than a little problematic, at least for contemporary readers who presume to be enlightened. Her identification of Africa as a pagan land (and consequently carrying with it all the pejoratives that come with the word "pagan" to Christian readers), her simile comparing Negros to the blackness of Cain (thus effectively associating both Blacks and the word "black" with sin and outcast), and her use of the word "mercy" to describe being taken from Africa to America have all been reasons for readers to dismiss or ignore Wheatley. And no doubt these perceptions helped make her something of a poetry superstar in her own time, able to rub elbows with the elite of American culture (including people like Jefferson, Franklin and George Washington). Her fame had little to do with appreciation for her aesthetic talents; it had more to do with her role as a poster child for the rightness of the philosophies of the Age of Reason. That this ex-slave could write poetry bore witness to the fundamental possibilities for all humans to succeed, if circumstances allowed it. But likely few if any white readers (and that's who her readers were going to be) thought her revolutionary in her ideas--and that was just fine.
But I don't think Wheatley is that simple, or should be so easily dismissed. First, I think we need to recognize that her point in writing the poem is not to praise her christianization, but to chastise those who would call themselves Christian but behave otherwise. In that way she is in line with John Winthrop, in that she is reminding her readers (again, the majority would be white Christians) how Christians are supposed to behave--not what to believe, but how to behave, how to act on those beliefs. In essence she is calling them to task for politicizing their faith--that is, using their faith to engage in an act of political power. This perhaps reveals a profound level of irony in the poem. As Wheatley says, Negros are perceived as black as Cain; the associations between blackness and sin are embedded in the word "black" itself. Yet it is the Black woman who needs to remind the white Christians just who they are supposed to be.
We might, then, see this poem as a kind of mask. The opening lines are perhaps the mask that grins, the mask that makes the viewer/reader comfortable, the mask that enables her to bring the reader into the poem, where she can then smack them with their own hypocrisy.
Wheatley begins by crediting her slavery as a positive, because it has brought her to Christianity. While her Christian faith was surely genuine, it was also a "safe" subject for a slave poet. Expressing gratitude for her enslavement may be unexpected to most readers.
ReplyDeleteThe word "benighted" is an interesting one: it means "overtaken by night or darkness" or "being in a state of moral or intellectual darkness." Thus, she makes her skin color and her original state of ignorance of Christian redemption parallel situations.
She also uses the phrase "mercy brought me" and the title "on being brought" -- deftly down-playing the violence of the kidnapping of a child and the voyage on a slave ship, so as to not seem a dangerous critic of slavery, but at the same time crediting not the slave trade, but (divine) mercy with the act. This could be read as denying the power to those human beings who kidnapped her and subjected her to the voyage and to her subsequent sale and submission.
She credits "mercy" with her voyage -- but also with her education in Christianity. Both were actually at the hands of human beings. In turning both to God, she reminds her audience that there is a force more powerful than they are -- a force that has acted directly in her life.
She cleverly distances her reader from those who "view our sable race with scornful eye" -- perhaps thus nudging the reader to a more critical view of slavery or at least a more positive view of those who are slaves.
"Sable" as a self-description of her color is a very interesting choice of words. Sable is very valuable and desirable. This characterization contrasts sharply to the "diabolic die" of the next line.
In just eight lines, Wheatley describes her attitude towards her condition of enslavement -- both coming from Africa to America, and the culture that considers her color so negatively.
After taking several African American history classes, and reading countless books on black contributors, I must say, I have found Phillis Wheatley to be one of the most interesting. Because of Wheatley's subtle criticism of slavery, and her attempt to appeal to white Christian's from almost a position of gratitude, some blacks viewed her as a "sell out" for lack of a better word. At a glance, one might be inclined to agree with those skeptics. However,if one reads between the lines, he or she can see the contradictions in Wheatley's writings. She clearly believed slavery was wrong, and merely used a less threatening approach in order to make her point. The problem is, obviously, she did not succeed in her attempt to get whites to listen to her, as slavery went on nearly a century after her death. I think she mistakenly assumed everyone who was a Christian took their beliefs as seriously as she did.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that everyone pretty much agrees that this poem has a deeper meaning. When I first read this, I was shocked, I thought, she can't be serious she had to have been being sarcastic! Upon reading it again I realized that while she did seem sincere about her Christianity, she was in fact criticizing whites for using Christianity to justify slavery. I think the last two lines emphasize this the most.
ReplyDelete"Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train"
These last two lines seem so condescending. Her use of the word angelic really drives her point home. I think she knew that hardly anyone could look at those who practice slavery and really truly consider them “angelic”.
Much like Frederick Douglass stood before crowds as a former slave who had taught himself to read, write and play a public role, Wheatley through her poetry (this poem in particular) offers herself as living proof that blacks are worthy of salvation in the eyes of God and man. But she falls far short of Douglass' public impact. Why? In 1773, the evils of King George were viewed as more of a threat than the evils of slavery. Her admonitions are for the most part not taken seriously in view of the larger problem the Founders have on their hands. (Being black AND a woman she probably would not have been taken seriously anyway). She's before her time, which wouldn't arrive for another 70 years or so. So it seems to me that her poems must have been read not for their important message (like Douglass' work), but as novelties. She's a novelty or to put it more rudely, an oddity, in the public's perception, which causes her public appeal to faded fairly quickly to the point that she dies in obscurity.
ReplyDeleteHer sense of irony and genteel sarcasm became much clearer to me when I combined a reading of the poem with the "Letter to Samson Occom" (p. 1056). "God grant deliverance in his own way and time, and get him honour upon all those whose avarice impels them to countenance and help forward the calamities of their fellow creatures. This I desire not for their hurt, but to convince them of the strange absurdity of their conduct, whose words and actions are so diametrically opposite. How well the cry for liberty, and the reverse disposition for the exercise of oppressive power over others agree --I humbly think it does not require the penetration of a philosopher to determine." In today's terms, she's saying it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to know that slavery is wrong, and she's calling the same men who she's rubbing shoulders with (slave holders Washington and Jefferson, for example) hypocrites; there's no reading between the lines in the letter as there is in the poem. Human nature being what it is, it's not surprising (although unfortunate) that she lost her base of support and was unable to publish further as she wished.
I do agree that there this poem does have a deeper meaning. However, I'm still trying to determine what that meaning may be. Unlike some of the others in the class, I don't have a lot of experience with African American literature, but I'm definitely open for some improvements and better interpretations.
ReplyDeleteIn Wheatley's poem, I can see, in a way, how she might be looking at being a slave as a positive things. This is because she uses the word "mercy" as a potential mask to cover up her true feelings. She may believe that it is a positive situation, but it's hard for me to see how any of it would relate to being positive. I did view the opening lines as the time when she began to understand why everything was happening. She says, "Twas mercy brought from my Pagan land, Taught me benighted soul to understand That there's a God" (2147). In that, I felt that she had the understanding that "everything happens for a reason", that with God's guidance, everything would be okay. To her, that may have been enough. She makes note of her views of racism. She goes on to say, "Some view our sable race with scornful eye, 'There colour is a diabolic die'"(1247).
In just eight short lines Wheatley is able to teach a significant lesson to her white Christian readers. I, like Matt, do not have much experience in African American literature or poetry. However, I read the footnote in our textbook and everyone else’s comments to better understand Wheatley’s intentions for composing the poem. Naively, I skimmed the poem first before reading anything else and was shocked to think that the author truly felt like a sinner because of her skin color. It got me thinking about racism, religion, immigration and a plethora of other issues. The second time through, I was slapped in the face with the sarcasm and witty wording of Wheatley’s voice. I paid particular attention to the specific words that the poet capitalized and italicized in the stanza. I suppose she wants us, the readers, to compare these words to one another – Pagan vs. Savior, Christian vs. Negro, Negro vs. Cain, and any combination of these words. What do they mean and why? It amazes me that a short work like this can elicit such conversation and exploration.
ReplyDeleteI thought one of the most remarkable things about this poem was that it was written by such a young girl. Phillis Wheatley was only in her teens but wrote with such maturity and was already adept at subtle irony. She had lived since age seven in a “pious Christian household” and “experienced special, much indulged comfort and only token slavery”. But she still surprisingly had a strong sense of her own racial identity and position in white culture. She exemplifies how African-Americans were “simultaneously aware of their own identities AND how white culture looked at them”.
ReplyDeleteWheatley's poem really made me stop and think. Americans had once made Afican Americans think that they were sinners and bad people just because the color of their skin. I found it amazing that her last two lines were so powerful. They quickly wrap up her point. She thinks that Christians will be refined someday and join the rest of them. All the pain and suffering that the Americans put the Afican Americans through will be returned.
ReplyDelete