Poetry for All
Transcript for Episode 3: Phillis Wheatley, ÒOn Being Brought from Africa to AmericaÓ

Joanne:

Hello. IÕm Joanne Diaz, a poet and English professor at Illinois WesleyanÊUniversity.

Abram:

And IÕm Abram Van Engen, an English professor at Washington University in St.ÊLouis.

Joanne:

And this is Poetry for All.

Abram:

This podcast is for those who already love poetry and for those who know veryÊlittle about it.Ê

Joanne:

In this podcast, weÕll read a poem, discuss it, learn from it, and then read it oneÊmore time.

Abram:

And today weÕre going to take a close look at a difficult poem by one of theÊfounding figures of African American literary traditions, ÒOn Being Brought from Africa to AmericaÓ by Phillis Wheatley. Should I read this?

Joanne:

Yes, please.

Abram:

ÒOn Being Brought from Africa to America.ÓÊ

[For text, please see: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america]

Joanne:

This is an amazing poem. Abram, could you tell us a little bit about whoÊPhillis Wheatley was and why she still matters so much?

Abram:

Yeah, so Phillis Wheatley is a really important figure. She was born in WestÊAfrica in 1753. She was kidnapped, enslaved, she survived the Middle Passage, was sold into slavery in 1761 to the Wheatley family at the age of seven or eight, and they saw immediately just how brilliant she was so they gave her books. She began to write, and she was not the first African American writer in the American tradition, but sheÕs the first African American to publish a book of poems in America in 1773. And so she becomes this really important founding figure in African American literary traditions.Ê

Joanne:

And she continues to be influential to this day. Just for two examples of many,ÊI canÕt help but think of a poetic sequence that Cornelius Eady has been working on thatÕs inspired by the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, and, of course, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers just came out with a magnificent poetry collection, called *The Age of Phillis,* which draws upon archival materials and the life and work of Phillis Wheatley. Um, and HonorŽe Fanonne Jeffers is incorporating some of that inspiration to create her own sequence of poems.

Abram:

Yeah, and with all that said, I mean, I think itÕs important to note that for a longÊtime, nobody knew quite what to do with her work. And, in part, because of poems like this, this is a difficult poem. On the one hand, it seems like she is grateful to slavery because it brought her to Christ. And thatÕs a very difficult position to take and especially difficult as a sort of founding figure of African American literary traditions. So I think itÕs important to walk through this poem line by line to show that thatÕs not, in fact, what sheÕs saying in this poem. So maybe we should just begin at the beginning with those first three lines.Ê

Joanne:

Okay, yeah. LetÕs take a look at those, because I think these first three lines doÊwhat you suggest. If you want to read this poem with that meaning that you were just describing, it looks like itÕs there, but then you see itÕs not. Ò'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, / Taught my benighted soul to understand / That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too.Ó What would you say is happening between Phillis Wheatley and her audience, or what sheÕs perceiving as her audience, in these lines, Abram? 

Abram:

So, I think one important thing to understand about Wheatley is she has toÊspeak in a language that will let her speak, while still saying what she wants to say. And thatÕs really what this poem is all about and a lot of what her poetry is about. These three opening lines, in effect, open the door for her. So, for a white audience that sees no problem with slavery and, in fact, wants to bless it as bringing Christianity to a Pagan land, these are the lines that allow for her to speak. And, at the same time, these lines begin to undermine that very philosophy. So, the word Òmercy,Ó for example. ItÕs, on the one hand, compassion shown to a powerless person which is, of course, exactly what does not happen with the enslavement of Africans. On the other hand, itÕs a religious term for forgiveness, and finally, itÕs a term that draws our attention to power dynamics. That power dynamic is at the very heart of mercy itself. So, Ò'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land.Ó What do you see else happening in these three lines?

Joanne:

IÕm very intrigued by the word Òbeknighted.Ó Ò'Twas mercy brought me from myÊPagan land.Ó It was mercy that taught my benighted soul that thereÕs a God, that there's a savior, too. Her soul was benighted. It was in darkness before it could understand Christianity. But thereÕs a problem there, because the very people who have introduced her to this God and to this Savior are practicing slavery. They are, uh, complicit in the institution of slavery, which means that they are not yet fully accessing the message of Christ, right?

Abram:

Right. So, when I see those lines, the very people that teach her thereÕs a God, are the same people who, by their actions, are teaching her that they need a Savior. So, ÒTaught my benighted soul to understand / That there's a God,Ó they bring her this sort of Christian God, and, by enslaving her, teach her that they are not, in fact, saved by this God, uh, that they need a savior, that a savior is needed.

Joanne:

That really helps me understand how the poem then shifts to the next line. LineÊfour says, ÒOnce I redemption neither sought nor knew.Ó Basically she's saying, there was a time in my life when I lived in Africa when I neither sought redemption nor even knew what it was. To a Christian audience, this might sound like a bad thing, because redemption in a Christian context, would be something that you might want. Could you say a bit about how you read that line, Abram?Ê

Abram:

Yeah, so I think thereÕs two important aspects to this line. The first thing sheÕs saying is: there was a time in my life when I existed on other terms altogether, that you could not define. But the other important thing about this line is that word Òredemption.Ó Her spiritual terms in this poem turn our attention to slavery again and again, and this word does so as well. Redemption is, of course, a kind of spiritual term about conversion, to be forgiven, uh, to be turned to God, but it is also, at root, a financial term, to be bought back, to be redeemed. And so sheÕs also saying in this line, there was a time in my life when I did not know that human beings could be bought and sold. ÒOnce I redemption neither sought nor knew.Ó She didnÕt know that this kind of evil was even possible in the world.

Joanne:

Oh my God, thatÕs a completely different reading than what might be there initially on the surface. ThatÕs incredible. So, just by virtue of word choice, what sheÕs doing so beautifully in this tiny poem, every single word matters, and IÕm intrigued by how in that line, she takes something like redemption, uh, which is something that seems desirable but then she adds this financial valence to it thatÕs really a critique. And then, she shifts in an amazing way to the next two lines. She is able to think about what others say about people of African descent. ÒSome view our sable race with scornful eye, / [quote] ÔTheir colour is a diabolic dieÕÓ end quote. Could you talk about how she incorporates that white quote into the poem?

Abram:

Yeah, so if youÕre just listening to this poem and havenÕt read it before, you might not know that that line, "ÕTheir colour is a diabolic dieÕ" is in quotation marks. She is literally giving voice to the white supremacy that is around her. And in doing that as a black poet, she is, in a certain sense, undermining it. So we talk about mimicry and its various functions and forms. ThereÕs a form of mimicry that is a kind of subversion to give back to the people who are enslaving you the very words that they are using to enslave you. But to voice them yourself is to hollow them out, to show it up, uh, for what it is.

Joanne:

ThatÕs amazing, and then, you know, after that moment in which she has hollowed out that quote, as you say, when sheÕs created this indictment and this critique of the quote, she finishes the poem this way, and itÕs truly amazing: ÒRemember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.Ó Uh, thereÕs a lot going on in that penultimate line. ÒRememberÓ comma, ÒChristiansÓ comma, ÒNegrosÓ comma, Òblack as Cain.Ó Could you say a little bit about what sheÕs setting up with those commas?Ê

Abram:

So I think thereÕs a few things that sheÕs doing typographically that really matter. One is, she's using italics to draw our attention to certain words. So if you look at the italics in this seventh line, itÕs ÒChristians,Ó ÒNegros,Ó ÒCain.Ó There's a kind of equivalence in those words because of the italics that draws our attention to them. But we really notice an equivalence in those words because of where she puts the commas in this line. She puts a comma after the word ÒRemember.Ó When I teach this poem, I often describe that comma as the most famous comma in American literature. And the reason is because if itÕs not there, this poem has an entirely different meaning. So, if itÕs not there, that line reads as follows: ÒRemember Christians that Negros are black as Cain.Ó But, the fact that that comma is there makes it read this way: ÒRemember, dear reader, that Christians and Negros are black as Cain.Ó

Joanne:

Mh-hmm.

Abram:

So, the fact of the comma shows us that sheÕs writing for an audience that willÊsee what she is up to at some point in time, while at the same time, allowing a different audience in her own day to see whatever they want to see in this poem. And we know from her other poems that she knew exactly what she was doing. This punctuation is not an accident. She is speaking to an audience who, in the future, will see exactly how much she is indicting the Christian slavers who are, at the same time, bringing her to Christ.

Joanne:

That is amazing. And, I think, too, again, word choice. So not only do we need to really slow down and think about every bit of punctuation, every way that sheÕs engaging with syntax, but the word choices here are, once again, very deliberate and really incredible. ÒRemember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.Ó ÒRefinedÓ sounds so lovely there, right?

Abram:

Yeah.

Joanne:

...but thereÕs a very important valence to that word choice as well, isnÕt there?Ê

Abram:

Yes, absolutely. I think itÕs really important to notice the levels at which sheÕs working here. So, on the one hand, sheÕs speaking to one audience in her own day and to a future audience. She is also speaking in spiritual terms with words that direct our attention to the physical and material conditions of slavery. 

So redemption happened that way, so does refined. The word Òblack as CainÓ draws our attention to the word, ÒrefinedÓ because ÒCainÓ is a reference not just to the first murderer in the Bible, the first bloodshed in the Bible, but also to the production of sugar cane, which was, at this time, in the eighteenth century, the main driver of slavery. So the slave trade really revolved around the production of sugarcane in the Caribbean. And she knows that, and sheÕs drawing our attention to that. And the other thing about sugarcane, is that it is dark before it is refined. So, if you think about molasses. Molasses is dark. ThatÕs unrefined. The refining process is what turns it white. And so she is, even in these spiritual terms about Cain and Abel, and refinement, and redemption, and so on, she is still talking also about slavery. It is Christians who are driving slavery for the production of sugarcane who need spiritually to be refined.Ê

Joanne:

This is an amazing example of how a poem can change based on just the layers of meaning that you extract from the word choices, from understanding the material conditions in which she wrote the poem, what she was responding to, and what she was critiquing. ItÕs absolutely amazing.

Abram:

Yeah, and just to reiterate this point, which I think is so important. Last week, we talked about how poetry is often about telling all the truth, but tell it slant. So much of African American literary traditions has been, in a certain sense, forced into that position. They have to tell all the truth but tell it slant, because they have to show one audience what they want to see while also speaking to another audience, uh, what they actually want to say.Ê

Joanne:

That doubleness is absolutely extraordinary. It just further reveals her rhetorical virtuosity. Um, sheÕs an extraordinary poet in every way.

Abram:

Absolutely. Would you be willing to read this poem for us?Ê

Joanne:

Yes. ÒOn Being Brought from Africa to AmericaÓ by Phillis WheatleyÊ

[For text, please see: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america]

Abram:

Thank you. For more on Phillis Wheatley, including links to recent important works by Cornelius Eady, HonorŽe Fanonne Jeffers, and others, please do see our website.

Joanne:

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