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.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead—his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.