confession of faith became proof to later readers
that she had sold out, like an Uncle Tom, to her
captors’ religious propaganda.
Line 4
Line 4 goes on to further illustrate how ignorant
Wheatley was before coming to America: she did
not even know enough to seek the redemption of
her soul. She did not know that she was in a
sinful state. This line is meaningful to an Evan-
gelical Christian because one’s soul needs to be
in a state of grace, or sanctified by Christ, upon
leaving the earth. If it is not, one cannot enter
eternal bliss in heaven. Thus, she explains the
dire situation: she was in danger of losing her
soul and salvation. The difficulties she may have
encountered in America are nothing to her, com-
pared to possibly having remained unsaved. In
this, she asserts her religion as her priority in life;
but, as many commentators have pointed out, it
does not necessarily follow that she condones
slavery, for there is evidence that she did not, in
such poems as the one to Dartmouth and in the
letter to Samson Occom.
The first four lines of the poem could be
interpreted as a justification for enslaving Afri-
cans, or as a condoning of such a practice, since
the enslaved would at least then have a chance at
true religion. This has been a typical reading,
especially since the advent of African American
criticism and postcolonial criticism. This view
sees the slave girl as completely brainwashed
by the colonial captors and made to confess
her inferiority in order to be accepted. She is
grateful for being made a slave, so she can
receive the dubious benefits of the civilization
into which she has been transplanted. Following
fuller scholarly investigation into her complete
works, however, many agree that this interpre-
tation is oversimplified and does not do full
justice to her awareness of injustice.
Line 5
The last four lines take a surprising turn; sud-
denly, the reader is made to think. The opening
sentiments would have been easily appreciated
by Wheatley’s contemporary white audience,
but the last four lines exhorted them to reflect
on their assumptions about the black race. The
poet quickly and ably turns into a moral teacher,
explaining as to her backward American friends
the meaning of their own religion.
Line 5 boldly brings out the fact of racial
prejudice in America. The darker races are
looked down upon. Wheatley admits this, and
in one move, the balance of the poem seems
shattered. She separates herself from the audi-
ence of white readers as a black person, calling
attention to the difference. She thus makes clear
that she has praised God rather than the people
or country of America for her good fortune. One
may wonder, then, why she would be glad to be
in such a country that rejects her people.Line 6
Line 6, in quotations, gives a typical jeer of a
white person about black people. The line leads
the reader to reflect that Wheatley was not as
naive, or as shielded from prejudice, as some
have thought. She notes that the black skin
color is thought to represent a connection to
the devil. The inclusion of the white prejudice
in the poem is very effective, for it creates two
effects. First, the reader can imagine how it feels
to hear a comment like that. Secondly, it
describes the deepest Christian indictment of
her race: blacks are too sinful to be saved or to
be bothered with. While it is true that her very
ability to write such a poem defended her race
against Jefferson’s charge that black people were
not intelligent enough to create poetry, an even
worse charge for Wheatley would have been the
association of the black race with unredeemable
evil—the charge that the black race had no souls
to save.Line 7
Line 7 is one of the difficult lines in the poem. She
addresses Christians, which in her day would
have included most important people in America,
in government, education, and the clergy. Some
were deists, like Benjamin Franklin, who believed
in God but not a divine savior. Wheatley, how-
ever, is asking Christians to judge her and her
poetry, for she is indeed one of them, if they
adhere to the doctrines of their own religion,
which preaches Christ’s universal message of
brotherhood and salvation.
Why, then, does she seem to destroy her
argument and admit that the African race is
black like Cain, the first murderer in the Bible?
This comparison would seem to reinforce the
stereotype of evil that she seems anxious to
erase. If she had left out the reference to Cain,
the poem would simply be asserting that black
people, too, can be saved. On the other hand, byOn Being Brought from Africa to America