America to Africa

The author from the beginning of the poem catches me off guard when she sort of makes her slavery sound positive. In the first line you see that she says that it was mercy that brought her to America. If it had not been for mercy she would have never found Christianity. In the time that she wrote it, Christianity was the valid thing to talk about because in slavery a lot of times that what they turnt to. She makes a parallel in this poem between her skin complexion and her ignorance from accepting Christ using the word "benighted". Through the writing it like denatures the process of slavery to make it seem that it wasn't as bad as history for tells. She takes a specific part in history and explains it and picks out a certain topic like Vendler says to put the reader in the place she is in. At first I thought that this poem was disrespectful to slaves including herself that went through harsh times. As I reread it it made me realize that by her saying it is apart of diveine mercy it takes power away from the people that treated slaves so harshly. This is very interesting because in most poems or stories youread it talks about the weakness of the slaves and the power of the slave owners. In this poem however it doesn't put the status quo traits with slavery. The only problem in this poem to the author was that she was ignorant to Christianity before coming to America. So her "slave owners" instead of bonding her; freed her in a more figuratively way. By taking her out of Africa it brought her to the place that she cold find God and also her destiny. She spends a lot of time stressing that it was a purpose for her coming to America other than slavery. That their is a bigger force that influenced what happened to her than the people who subjected her to the slave trade.This porm in no way shows that she was a slave to man but a servant of God. The use of sable as a description of her race shows how confident she is in knowing that her and also her people are very valuable. The common view is that slaves were worthless but she provides a different outlook on slavery. She has drawn the reader in and she knows it by the use of remember in the second to the last line. This makes you know that she is confident thatt the reader has grasped her point and is just waiting for a stronger sense of agreement. She joins everybody together in the last line. She puts like accepting Christ and refining oneself brings a type of unity that will be together on the angelic train. The language in this poem is important because it is very specified to the meaning of the poem. Each word has significant meaning.