'Twas Mercy Brought Me From My Pagan'

The tone Wheatley conveys is rebellious. In line one Wheatley states " Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land." The use of the word mercy is ironic because being brought from the pagan land slaves were treated with out mercy. She is being sarcastic which feeds in to the rebellious tone. She italicized the word "Pagan" to emphasize the role of religion played in justifying slavery in America. She also refers to God and savior as two separate entities. The God of the white man is not the same for the oppressed. Their God says slavery is necessary, when in reality it is not in anyway justifiable. In line 6 Wheatley says "Their colour is a diabloc die." she puts this line in quotations as if she is speaking from a different perspective. This
could be from the perspective of the white man. They view the pigment of our skin as something that is repulsive. The use of the word dye reveals that perhaps white people saw our pigment as something that we could control because dye fades away over time. Because we could "control" the color of our skin, it was our fault that we were treated as savages and seen as inferior to the white race.