Station 1

First, read the following poem silently to yourself.

On Being Brought From Africa to America
Phillis Wheatley
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:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic dye."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

Then, talk quietly in your groups. What are the overarching messages
of Wheatleys poem? How do you interpret her tone in this poem?

Station 2
Take a look at Panel 5 from Jacob Lawrences Struggle Series. Closely
examine the painting as well as the title of the work taken from a 1773
petition of many slaves.
Discuss in your groups: What do you think is happening in Lawrences
painting?

This petition was made the same year that Wheatleys Poems on
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published. Additionally, if
you look at the following page in the spiral packet, youll see that the
petition was made in Boston, Massachusetts, where Wheatley also
lived.
What do Lawrences painting as well as this petition tell you about
issues related to slavery during Wheatleys time period?

Station 3
First, take a look at Panel 1 from Jacob Lawrences Struggle Series.
Read the title taken from Patrick Henrys famous Give Me Liberty or
Give Me Death speech.
The colonists often used the metaphor of slavery to describe the
oppression that the English forced upon them, as Henry does here.
Now read the following excerpt from Wheatleys To the Right
Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth. Watch how Wheatley begins
by addressing America in the first stanza and then begins to confront a
more personal subject in the second stanza.
. . . No more, America, in mournful strain
Of wrongs, and grievance unredressd complain,
No longer shall thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand
Had made, and with it meant tenslave the land.
Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatchd from Africs fancyd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parents breast?
Steeld was that soul and by no misery movd
That from a father seizd his babe belovd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?
What kind of language does Wheatley use to further this metaphor of
the colonists as slaves to the English?

How does she characterize her own experiences as an actual slave?

Station 4
Excerpt: Criticism of Wheatleys Work
Read the following excerpt silently to yourself.
Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry it
kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion indeed has
produced a Phyllis Whately; but it could not produce a poet. The
compositions published under her name are below the dignity of
criticism.

Discuss in your groups:

What is the authors criticism of Wheatley? Of African American poets
in general?

Who do you think wrote this criticism?

Station 5
The following excerpt was included as a preface to Wheatleys 1773
publication Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Read it
silently to yourself.
To the PUBLICK.
WE whose Names are under-written, do assure the World, that the POEMS specified in the
following, were (as we verily believe) written by PHILLIS, a young Negro Girl, who was
but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since
been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town. She
has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them.
His Excellency THOMAS HUTCHINSON, Governor,
The Hon. ANDREW OLIVER, Lieutenant-Governor.
The Hon. Thomas Hubbard,
The Hon. John Erving,
The Hon. James Pitts,
The Hon. Harrison Gray,
The Hon. James Bowdoin,
John Hancock, Esq;
Joseph Green, Esq;
Richard Carey, Esq;
The Rev. Charles Chauncey, D.D.
The Rev. Mather Byles, D.D.
The Rev. Ed. Pemberton, D.D.
The Rev. Andrew Elliot, D.D.
The Rev. Samuel Cooper, D.D.
The Rev. Mr. Saumel Mather,
The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead,
Mr. John Wheatley, her Master.

Discuss in groups: What is stated above as the purpose of this preface?

Why do you think it is included in Wheatleys work?

Station 6
A Modern Perspective
Prior to her 1773 publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious
and Moral, Wheatley was interrogated, or orally examined, by a
prominent group of men who thereby determined that she did, indeed,
write this collection of poems herself.
Take a look at what historian and literary scholar, Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., has to say on the subject:

AllofthishelpsustounderstandwhyPhillisWheatley'soral
examinationwassoimportant.Ifshehadindeedwrittenherown
poems,thenthiswoulddemonstratethatAfricanswerehumanbeings
andshouldbeliberatedfromslavery.If,ontheotherhand,shehadnot
written,orcouldnotwriteherpoems,orifindeedshewaslikeaparrot
whospeaksafewwordsplainly,thenthatwouldbeanothermatter
entirely.Essentially,shewasauditioningforthehumanityoftheentire
Africanpeople.
Discuss in your groups:
What are your initial reactions to Gates claims?