This blog serves as a public forum for you to post your reactions to a broad range of texts--from Shakespeare's really uncomfortable early play Titus Andronicus to Alan Ginsberg's "obscene" poem "Howl" to the latest album from Kendrick Lamar. The conversation revolves around notions of cultural influence and how popular "products" get us to react to them and to the things they endorse.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Phyllis Wheatley's On Being Brought from Africa to America
Phillis Wheatley’s poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” had a lot of meaning behind it even though it was only eight lines long. It told the story of how thankful the narrator was for their experience with slavery. Many people probably assumed that this poem was going to be about the horrors of slavery that the narrator experienced because I know that is what I thought by the title. Most people say that slavery ruined their life or other people’s life, which it did indeed. But the narrator of the poem had a different outlook on it. The narrator believed that slavery was what brought them to Christianity. The bad experiences led many slaves to believe in God and believe that after this life there’s a Savior. The poem also mentioned how American people looked down upon blacks because of their color. They were thought to be impure back in the day and that was the only excuse the whites had for taking African Americans out of their homes to be put in slavery and eventually killed. The narrator realizes that nothing will change in this life but God won’t discriminate against their race and eventually everyone will make it to Heaven. The narrator is not angry with the situation they are in. They are not mad at whoever enslaved them. The narrator is simply almost thankful that the road they were put on led them to Christianity. The narrator knows that God is with them and is thankful that they could pull out one positive thing from the bad experiences slavery put the narrator through.
The poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, by Phillis Wheatley was definitely much different from the normal poems or stories you hear about slavery. You normally hear stories or poems were a slave talks about how horrible slavery was or is. Throughout the poem, the women tells about the change in her belief system and that it was only after coming to America that she realized how Africans are treated outside their country. She was grateful for coming to America due to her learning and becoming aware of what was out there in the world. The author talks about her beliefs more the actual journey to America. Wheatley uses the adjective ‘benighted’ to describe her soul before her introduction to Christianity. I believe this is her inferring she had a dark impure soul before becoming a Christian. Even when she was being told racist things she took the white peoples words as constructive criticism and never took it to heart. She believed there was a reason African Americans were going through this. She believed it was god, possibly making them stronger as a race. She believed looking to god was the way out of slavery.
This poem made me think of the red pill/blue pill discussion we had last class. By traveling to America, the Africans were essentially taking the red pill. Staying in Africa would constitute the blue pill; there would be no change in the lives of the Africans and they more or less know what to expect on a day-to-day basis. When the Africans metaphorically took the red pill, they thought it would lead them on the path that projectile above the blue line (as drawn on the board last class). They thought in America, everyone would be treated with respect and great opportunities would arise equally for everyone. However, this was not the case back in the day when discrimination was prevalent and severe. Instead, the Africans actually took the red pill and descended on the path directing beneath the blue line. Since the times when Africans first came to America, racism has become less of an issue but still stands as a social problem. Obviously Africa-Americans aren’t segregated anymore and there are powerful, educated African-Americans in today’s society. However, especially regarding lower socioeconomic areas, they are still discriminated against. Reverse discrimination has also become a controversy. It is considered more offensive if a white person insults the black race than if a black person insults the white race. I also find it interesting that white people are now considered a minority. There has been such a large change in society. America used to be a white dominated country, both in population and socioeconomic class, and is now much more equalized in diversity.
This poem is a total 180 from what I thought it would be. When I heard we were reading about slavery, I didn’t think that the character in the poem would be grateful and happy to be leaving her homeland to come to America. I finally came to the understanding of why she was happy to be coming here. The narrator believes that now God and his Savior (Jesus Christ) have purified him/her so he/she will now be looked upon as equal, even with the difference in skin color. He (or she) states that even though they (African Americans) are as “black as Cain”, they have been saved by the Lord and now be treated as equals, as every other Christian is in God’s eyes. I’m not sure if this poem is supposed to be taking place before or after they arrived in America, but I read it as if they were still on the boat going there. This got me thinking about immigrants in the 1900’s coming over to America, believing that wondrous opportunities were left and right and the “streets were paved with gold”. They ended up finding out that it was basically the same or a little better than living in their home country, but times were still hard. That connected my mind to this poem because since I thought that if they haven’t gotten there yet, maybe they had false hopes of wonderment like the immigrants did when coming here. Not only until they would get there would they realize the truth and wouldn’t have minded Africa as much.
Phillis Wheatley's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America" has a lot of meaning in such a small amount of text. People view African Americans as something negative due to their darker skin color or as he puts it "Some view our sable race with scornful eye." People can be arrogant to black people. The color is only skin deep they lack to see who they are as unique individuals. The people that came to America from Africa came to the realization that their is a God. They have a chnace to live the lives they have only dreamed of. The came from religious lands where they belived in the Savior, but until they came to America did their beliefs seem all too real. The Africans only hope to one day be equal to the Americans and join together.
It was nice reading Phillis Wheatly’s poem because even though there were a handful of lines in the poem, it speaks so much. I have done other poems from Wheatly in history class and a common theme of her reactions of coming to America as a slave. I was not surprised when she said that she will feel like an equal to everyone else because God is her savior and believes that she will not be judged by the color of her skin. The last lines of the poem reflect how it does not matter what background or physical differences there are, we should all be considered an equal. Her forceful move from Africa to America was understood through that a Savior came and Wheatly realized that the black race should not be looked as the “scornful eye,” but as an equal to anyone else, like a Christian.
The Poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” by Phillis Wheatley, is not an average tale of slavery. When I think of poems or stories about slavery, I think about tales of hardship, torture, and unequal rights. Most often slavery stories that are told in this point of view are slaves speaking of the unbearable things they have gone through. This poem is the exact opposite. The woman talks about being happy to come to America because she will finally know what it is like. This reminds me of the previous story in the way that her curiosity led her into this situation. She chose the “red pill” because she knew something was happening in America and she would rather go over and find out no matter what the consequences. She doesn’t believe that the color of her skin should make a difference on how she is treated because she is a Christian just like everyone else. Even though that wasn’t the case when she arrived in America, she didn’t let any of that get her down, she almost wanted to take it as criticism. She battled through because she believed that God had some reasoning for her being there, and that in the end everything should work out. Her love for god was what she believed would lead her out of slavery.
Phillis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America” is not your typical slavery poem. Prior to reading this short poem I had expected a reading filled with animosity and the horrors of slavery. Instead, she expressed gratitude towards being enslaved while others most likely found it horrible. In the very first sentence Phillis states “’Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,” I did not know what she meant by “pagan land” so I looked it up and found that it meant one who has no religion. This led me to believe that she was happy to come to America even under the circumstances because it allowed her to embrace a religion. The thought that America had religious opportunities that her home did not is what brought her to leave her homeland with such joy and mercy. The narrator now understands that there is a God, as well as a savior, which gave her hope and something to believe in. Although in that time people of color faced a lot of discrimination the narrator’s new belief in Christianity allowed her to believe that God doesn’t discriminate upon anyone. That no matter what a person’s race God will be accepting of everyone or as Phillis states, “join the angelic train”. I think that she looked to God because she believed that God saw everyone as equal and if colored people and Americans had a common belief it would bring an end to slavery eventually. On some level having this common belief in God made them equal.
When I read “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley the first thing I thought was that this was going to be really hard to come up with a comment for in the blog but then I read some of the comments and I picked out Antonio’s comment and I thought the exact opposite way that Antonia thought in his comment, kind of. Back then whenever long ago even still a lot of people are happy to move over to America. The character in the poem even says I his or hers first line “Twas mercy brought me from a pagan land”. They were basically saying that they were happy to leave and go to America because it was a better place to go. Although the character did know that some people did view them differently because of their “color is a diabolic dye”. The charter knew what to expect and was willing to embrace it because he viewed people being all the same no matter what color they were and not many people were willing to accept that thought. He just wanted to be able to fit in and knew that one day Africans will be considered equal citizens among the people in America.
In the poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley, although short, has a lot of meaning. Something that I found interesting was in the third line. “That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too.” This line expresses so much meaning. It makes me think about what we talked about in class how are people truly in tune with their faith or beliefs or just because something happened to them? In this case the slave believes in God and a Savior. It raises the topic of people and usually you hear in bad cases that they turn to a higher power such as God or religion for that matter when the going gets tough. However, I haven’t heard as much about how people turning to religion when they have something good happen to them. This is interesting because people can believe several things they can believe in fate, or a miracle which can or cannot reflect religion. Another thing that I found in the text was the line “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain may be refined and join in the angelic train.” It is basically saying that Christians, negroes no matter what color or religion one may be that in the end they’re all going to end up the same. In this case the slave describes they’ll all end up in heaven or the “angelic train”. I also noticed the biblical reference noted with “black as Cain”. This simile is comparing the Negroes, black.. to Cain. As many people know the race of Cain is cursed because of his killing his brother Abel. This may relate because as Negroes were treated Cain was treated similar so when this slave reached America it could be salvation at last.
Phillis Wheatley’s poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” had a lot of meaning behind it even though it was only eight lines long. It told the story of how thankful the narrator was for their experience with slavery. Many people probably assumed that this poem was going to be about the horrors of slavery that the narrator experienced because I know that is what I thought by the title. Most people say that slavery ruined their life or other people’s life, which it did indeed. But the narrator of the poem had a different outlook on it. The narrator believed that slavery was what brought them to Christianity. The bad experiences led many slaves to believe in God and believe that after this life there’s a Savior. The poem also mentioned how American people looked down upon blacks because of their color. They were thought to be impure back in the day and that was the only excuse the whites had for taking African Americans out of their homes to be put in slavery and eventually killed. The narrator realizes that nothing will change in this life but God won’t discriminate against their race and eventually everyone will make it to Heaven. The narrator is not angry with the situation they are in. They are not mad at whoever enslaved them. The narrator is simply almost thankful that the road they were put on led them to Christianity. The narrator knows that God is with them and is thankful that they could pull out one positive thing from the bad experiences slavery put the narrator through.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, by Phillis Wheatley was definitely much different from the normal poems or stories you hear about slavery. You normally hear stories or poems were a slave talks about how horrible slavery was or is. Throughout the poem, the women tells about the change in her belief system and that it was only after coming to America that she realized how Africans are treated outside their country. She was grateful for coming to America due to her learning and becoming aware of what was out there in the world. The author talks about her beliefs more the actual journey to America. Wheatley uses the adjective ‘benighted’ to describe her soul before her introduction to Christianity. I believe this is her inferring she had a dark impure soul before becoming a Christian. Even when she was being told racist things she took the white peoples words as constructive criticism and never took it to heart. She believed there was a reason African Americans were going through this. She believed it was god, possibly making them stronger as a race. She believed looking to god was the way out of slavery.
ReplyDeleteThis poem made me think of the red pill/blue pill discussion we had last class. By traveling to America, the Africans were essentially taking the red pill. Staying in Africa would constitute the blue pill; there would be no change in the lives of the Africans and they more or less know what to expect on a day-to-day basis. When the Africans metaphorically took the red pill, they thought it would lead them on the path that projectile above the blue line (as drawn on the board last class). They thought in America, everyone would be treated with respect and great opportunities would arise equally for everyone. However, this was not the case back in the day when discrimination was prevalent and severe. Instead, the Africans actually took the red pill and descended on the path directing beneath the blue line.
ReplyDeleteSince the times when Africans first came to America, racism has become less of an issue but still stands as a social problem. Obviously Africa-Americans aren’t segregated anymore and there are powerful, educated African-Americans in today’s society. However, especially regarding lower socioeconomic areas, they are still discriminated against. Reverse discrimination has also become a controversy. It is considered more offensive if a white person insults the black race than if a black person insults the white race. I also find it interesting that white people are now considered a minority. There has been such a large change in society. America used to be a white dominated country, both in population and socioeconomic class, and is now much more equalized in diversity.
This poem is a total 180 from what I thought it would be. When I heard we were reading about slavery, I didn’t think that the character in the poem would be grateful and happy to be leaving her homeland to come to America. I finally came to the understanding of why she was happy to be coming here. The narrator believes that now God and his Savior (Jesus Christ) have purified him/her so he/she will now be looked upon as equal, even with the difference in skin color. He (or she) states that even though they (African Americans) are as “black as Cain”, they have been saved by the Lord and now be treated as equals, as every other Christian is in God’s eyes. I’m not sure if this poem is supposed to be taking place before or after they arrived in America, but I read it as if they were still on the boat going there. This got me thinking about immigrants in the 1900’s coming over to America, believing that wondrous opportunities were left and right and the “streets were paved with gold”. They ended up finding out that it was basically the same or a little better than living in their home country, but times were still hard. That connected my mind to this poem because since I thought that if they haven’t gotten there yet, maybe they had false hopes of wonderment like the immigrants did when coming here. Not only until they would get there would they realize the truth and wouldn’t have minded Africa as much.
ReplyDeletePhillis Wheatley's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America" has a lot of meaning in such a small amount of text. People view African Americans as something negative due to their darker skin color or as he puts it "Some view our sable race with scornful eye." People can be arrogant to black people. The color is only skin deep they lack to see who they are as unique individuals. The people that came to America from Africa came to the realization that their is a God. They have a chnace to live the lives they have only dreamed of. The came from religious lands where they belived in the Savior, but until they came to America did their beliefs seem all too real. The Africans only hope to one day be equal to the Americans and join together.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice reading Phillis Wheatly’s poem because even though there were a handful of lines in the poem, it speaks so much. I have done other poems from Wheatly in history class and a common theme of her reactions of coming to America as a slave. I was not surprised when she said that she will feel like an equal to everyone else because God is her savior and believes that she will not be judged by the color of her skin. The last lines of the poem reflect how it does not matter what background or physical differences there are, we should all be considered an equal. Her forceful move from Africa to America was understood through that a Savior came and Wheatly realized that the black race should not be looked as the “scornful eye,” but as an equal to anyone else, like a Christian.
ReplyDeleteThe Poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” by Phillis Wheatley, is not an average tale of slavery. When I think of poems or stories about slavery, I think about tales of hardship, torture, and unequal rights. Most often slavery stories that are told in this point of view are slaves speaking of the unbearable things they have gone through. This poem is the exact opposite. The woman talks about being happy to come to America because she will finally know what it is like. This reminds me of the previous story in the way that her curiosity led her into this situation. She chose the “red pill” because she knew something was happening in America and she would rather go over and find out no matter what the consequences. She doesn’t believe that the color of her skin should make a difference on how she is treated because she is a Christian just like everyone else. Even though that wasn’t the case when she arrived in America, she didn’t let any of that get her down, she almost wanted to take it as criticism. She battled through because she believed that God had some reasoning for her being there, and that in the end everything should work out. Her love for god was what she believed would lead her out of slavery.
ReplyDeletePhillis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America” is not your typical slavery poem. Prior to reading this short poem I had expected a reading filled with animosity and the horrors of slavery. Instead, she expressed gratitude towards being enslaved while others most likely found it horrible. In the very first sentence Phillis states “’Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,” I did not know what she meant by “pagan land” so I looked it up and found that it meant one who has no religion. This led me to believe that she was happy to come to America even under the circumstances because it allowed her to embrace a religion. The thought that America had religious opportunities that her home did not is what brought her to leave her homeland with such joy and mercy. The narrator now understands that there is a God, as well as a savior, which gave her hope and something to believe in. Although in that time people of color faced a lot of discrimination the narrator’s new belief in Christianity allowed her to believe that God doesn’t discriminate upon anyone. That no matter what a person’s race God will be accepting of everyone or as Phillis states, “join the angelic train”. I think that she looked to God because she believed that God saw everyone as equal and if colored people and Americans had a common belief it would bring an end to slavery eventually. On some level having this common belief in God made them equal.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley the first thing I thought was that this was going to be really hard to come up with a comment for in the blog but then I read some of the comments and I picked out Antonio’s comment and I thought the exact opposite way that Antonia thought in his comment, kind of. Back then whenever long ago even still a lot of people are happy to move over to America. The character in the poem even says I his or hers first line “Twas mercy brought me from a pagan land”. They were basically saying that they were happy to leave and go to America because it was a better place to go. Although the character did know that some people did view them differently because of their “color is a diabolic dye”. The charter knew what to expect and was willing to embrace it because he viewed people being all the same no matter what color they were and not many people were willing to accept that thought. He just wanted to be able to fit in and knew that one day Africans will be considered equal citizens among the people in America.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley, although short, has a lot of meaning. Something that I found interesting was in the third line. “That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too.” This line expresses so much meaning. It makes me think about what we talked about in class how are people truly in tune with their faith or beliefs or just because something happened to them? In this case the slave believes in God and a Savior. It raises the topic of people and usually you hear in bad cases that they turn to a higher power such as God or religion for that matter when the going gets tough. However, I haven’t heard as much about how people turning to religion when they have something good happen to them. This is interesting because people can believe several things they can believe in fate, or a miracle which can or cannot reflect religion. Another thing that I found in the text was the line “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain may be refined and join in the angelic train.” It is basically saying that Christians, negroes no matter what color or religion one may be that in the end they’re all going to end up the same. In this case the slave describes they’ll all end up in heaven or the “angelic train”. I also noticed the biblical reference noted with “black as Cain”. This simile is comparing the Negroes, black.. to Cain. As many people know the race of Cain is cursed because of his killing his brother Abel. This may relate because as Negroes were treated Cain was treated similar so when this slave reached America it could be salvation at last.
ReplyDelete