-Upon reading Wheatley's poem's you don't get strong sense that she is
speaking with a distinctly black voice
-the type of poetry she was accustom to writing and excelled at writing
didn't necessarily allow for that voice to emerge
-neo=classical poetry celebrates the general and avoids the singualr adn
deeply personal
-I would also suggest that unlike her white female counterparts she did
not have access to "metaphorical shortcuts"
-For example, in the poem "The story of Inkle and Yarico" Seymouruses the
term "niggard Fortune" to express how evil the slave trade is, but she can
only use the term successfully because it has negative connotations in the
mind of her readers. Phillis Wheatley as black woman and as some one who
would be considered a nigger could not use that term without need of
useful and detailed description
-also if we consider that many 18th century women poet used animals as
vehicles for describing their plight, we must also consider that Wheatley
who is already considered an animal would have difficulty conveying the
same message
-these thoughts informed my reading of "on Being Brought From Africa to
America"
-the poem can be easily dismissed as as an example of how Wheatley
comformed to Euro-American ideas about Africa and Africans. In fact she
appears to be playing the part of the noble savage, grateful for having
been rescued by Europeans
-I believe that Wheatley is not conforming to but subverting conventional
images of Africans and slavery. I believe that she is trying to elevate
the image of Africans in the minds of Europeans and Americans
-Firstly there is the use of a lot of colour imagery: "benighted"(2),
"sable"(5) adn she suggests that "black" is a diabolical die" (6)
-in emphasizing colour she not only makes race central to the poem, but
also adn especially in line 6 with her pun on the word "die" (as in dye)
suggests that "colour" is not intrinsic but rather a social construct
-moreover, since we cannot be sure whether Wheatley intended for there to
be quotation marks around the words "Their colour is a diabolical die"
(6), Wheatley could be implying that on a literal or moral level, "some"
peopl, namely white racist and proponents of slavery are the evil and
immoral ones
-this becomes more clear if we remember that more than being African,
being Christian was the central concern of Wheatley
-accordingly, her admonistion at teh end of the poem is telling of her
race, class, adn self consciousness:"Remember, Christians, Negroes, black
as Cain/May be refind adn join th' angelic train" (7-8)
-Here, the suggestion that with education adn Christianization Africans
can achieve equality with whites (in this regard the Capitalization of
words is suggestive) is both bold and revolutionary, because in the 18th
century many did not see Africans as humans, let alone possessing the
capability or souls necessary to be Christians or master the arts and
sciences
-in conclusion, although the black voice is muted, it is not altogether
absent