Class Related Response

  In class we read the poem "On Being Brought From Africa to America". In the poem she talks about her transition from being a pagan to a Christian. In class we discussed what a pagan was, to be a pagan means to be a non Christian. We broke down the poem line by line to see the literal aspects of the poem. We also learned about the historical theory behind the poem. In class we learned that Phillis Wheatley, the author was a slave brought here in the slave trade and converted to Christianity. In the poem she also talks how her skin color affects her life amongst those that are white. As a class we discussed the what she really wanted to say. Towards the end of the poem she says that "remember,Christians,negros,black as Cain may be re'fin'd and join th' angelic train." Really stood out to me because she is erasing the color barrier and anything else that makes people different from each other. That line erases those barriers and said that it don't matter because heaven doesn't have any color restraints or any reason to turn anyone that didn't sin away. She is saying that skin color don't mater because we are all Christians and are going to heaven. Another line that stood out to me is the line that she said "their colour is a diabolic die". That also stood out because she was taking from the view of someone else saying thine things about her. The meaning of diabolic means to be evil or bad. Today a classmate brought up the fact that maybe back then the meaning of die was used to mean dye as the color not to die. That really stood out because she was saying how people think back then and how she used different words for different meanings.