1773 / Boston

Aboard the Angelic Train

Tags:: abolition,; Phillis Wheatley,; poetry,; slavery

’Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God—that there’s a savior too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye—
“Their color is a diabolic dye.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain
May be refined, and join the angelic train.

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Published In

Religion

About the Author

Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Wheatley was kidnapped by slave traders in 1761 and taken by ship to Boston, where she was bought by a tailor. After mastering English, she learned Greek and Latin, translating a tale by Ovid, a feat which shocked the local scholars. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in 1773; shortly thereafter, she was awarded her freedom.

Religion! How it dominates man’s mind, how it humiliates and degrades his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and blood have ruled the world since gods began.