"On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley

ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO

AMERICA.

   ’T was 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 color is a diabolic dye.’

Remember, Christians, Negros black as Cain

May be refined, and join the angelic train.

Source of the text - Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave.  Boston: Geo. W. Light, 1834, page 42.

TJB: Over understated. In 4 simple iambic couplets, with Latinate poise, the poet equally expresses her Salvation & enslavement, by the same hands.