On Being Brought From Africa To America Analysis

As any female figure from this Puritan time, Bradstreet faced a world dominated by men and prejudice. Several years later, Wheatley also faced racial prejudices with the same gender discrimination that Bradstreet had endured a century before. Bradstreet’s goal was to rebrand how women was viewed through the lens of a Puritan society. Bradstreet uses the Prologue to show society the stereotypes imposed by Puritanism. The statement “I am vulnerable to each scornful tongue who says my hand a needle better fits. A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong, for such despite they cast they cast on female wits. If what I do prove well, it won't advance, they'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance” is a clear indication of such goal. In “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, Wheatley denounces the white Christian America. In turn to her writings, it provided the West with plausible reflections on the perceptions on how race and gender was viewed. Wheatley utilizes poetry as a socially acceptable medium by which they give voice to the “Other,” whether it be women, silenced by Puritan principles, or Africans, not
It is true that “On Being Brought from Africa to America” seems to praise whites for freeing Wheatley from Africa more than questioning their right to have removed her in the first place “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land.” However, “To Samson Occom” can be read to show that Wheatley was not thoroughly deceived by the superficial kindnesses that covered over the fact of her enslavement. Perhaps it was because she had conflicting feelings about the institution. In the poems, it can be construed that she praises slavery because it brought her to