Phillis Wheatley was an American poet and a child prodigy who wrote many well-regarded poems and was considered one of the best of her time, even being revered by George Washington. This was despite her status as a slave. Her poems which will be discussed in this essay are “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and “To the University of Cambridge in New England”. Frederick Douglass was an American abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. On July 5, 1852, he delivered a speech in Rochester, New York. Both Wheatley and Frederick Douglass are teachers who preach the messages of equality through appeal to authority, and they establish their own natural equality while getting their message across in ways that do not allow the audience to disagree with making them social realities. First, they introduce themselves while affirming their own faults. In her argument for equality, Wheatley appeals to Christianity, while Douglass focuses on the struggles of the American Revolutionaries and the ideals and values of the Declaration of Independence. They then affirm that they do not share in this equality and give calls to action to their audiences to change this: Wheatley does so implicitly by telling Cambridge students to use their privileges and be moral, while Douglass points to the youth of the nation, laments that his people do not share in its fruits and gives his audience Biblical warnings.

As part of establishing their equality, both authors affirm their own faults. In “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, Wheatley says that “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” (Wheatley 1-4). In a similar way in “To the University of Cambridge”, Wheatley says that her native Africa is “the land of errors, and Egyptian gloom”, referring to the three days of darkness suffered by Egypt during the plague (Wheatley 4). She is paralleling her own spiritual darkness as a “pagan” woman in a majority non-Christian area of Africa. The theme in both poems is how she was brought out of her darkness into the light of Christ, and in the latter poem the imagery of darkness in the first stanza can be contrasted with that of the second, where Wheatley tells the students that “to you tis given to scan the heights  / Above, to traverse the ethereal space” (Wheatley 7-8). They come from very different starting places: the students are born into privilege while Wheatley was born into slavery and darkness. 

A similar relationship exists between Frederick Douglass and his audience: he spends the whole beginning of the speech apologizing to the audience and unsure of his abilities, saying that he does “not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, not with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day”. He contrasts “the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which he escaped”, and says that “it is a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude” (Douglass 1). The imagery here is of rising, as the platform is made to be higher than the slave plantation, like the contrast between the sky and the darkness in Wheatley’s poem. Both Wheatley and Douglass are grateful that they have been able to rise above their positions of slavery to the point where they are able to teach things to their audiences. However, Wheatley is still enslaved, while Frederick Douglass is a free man working to free others. This somewhat parallels America’s situation during each of their times: when Wheatley was writing America was still in bondage to the British, while Douglass’ America is an independent nation and somewhat free, although not for his people.

After this, both authors make their appeals. Wheatley’s is to her Christian faith. In the Cambridge poem, she tells the students that “When the whole human race by sin had fallen / He deigned to die that they might rise again” (Wheatley 17-18). She is affirming that every human, regardless of their race or social class, is tainted with sin, without exception. Jesus had no obligation to sacrifice himself, but he still did so that humanity could share heaven with him. This idea is also present in her Africa to America poem, where she tells her readers to “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain/ May be refined, and join the angelic train” (Wheatley 7-8). She is the living proof of that. By comparing her people’s blackness to Cain, she is giving a concession to people who believe that dark-skinned people are bad. But even if they were correct, their argument wouldn’t work because everyone, without exception, can redeem themselves. Despite being enslaved, she is grateful to God for his grace in showing her the light of the Christian faith, freeing her from spiritual slavery and helping her to grow into the poet that she is. The choice of the second stanza in the Cambridge poem to make her point about salvation is significant. Wheatley has already established a rapport with the audience, first introducing herself before explaining to them their own religion, and she is now forcing them to confront the hypocrisy of slavery. Having affirmed her own sin and her own redemption in God’s hands, she is now asking all the students to do the same. Wheatley was a devout Christian, and she knew the Bible well. Her family, the Wheatleys, was part of a circle of enlightened Christians in Boston, and they denounced slavery as incompatible with the Christian way of life.

This is different to Douglass, who, although he makes some religious appeals, mostly appeals to the struggle that the American colonists faced 76 years before. He says that although the colonists esteemed Britain as the home government, it “imposed upon its colonial children such restraints, burdens and limitations” (Douglass 2). The colonists at first, “petitioned and remonstrated in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner” with a “wholly unexceptionable conduct”. However, they were treated with “sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn” and “the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of”. Because “oppression makes a wise man mad, […] the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born”. He expressed his sympathies with the colonists, saying that his opinion of the situation “fully lines up with that of their fathers” (Douglass 3). The Founding Fathers did not give up, and their “alarming and revolutionary idea moved on”, culminating in the freedom of the American nation.  By recounting his story, while addressing his audience as “fellow citizens” he is trying to draw a parallel between the struggle of the colonists and the struggle of his fellow black Americans. He is saying that even the wisest men, if they were pushed hard enough by oppression or tyranny, would snap. He tells them to “properly celebrate this anniversary” and that the 4^th of July is “the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny” (Douglass 4). Douglas is appealing to the common desire for freedom that all humans feel, the rights that as Wheatley has already established have been given by God’s salvation and is saying that both the colonists and black Americans would persevere for their rights and not be stopped, just as Jesus and his followers could not be stopped. That desire for freedom, along with their common inhabitation of this nation and the affirmation in the Declaration of Independence that all men are equal, affirms the equality of Douglass and his fellow Africans. Frederick Douglass is using the American Revolution and the Declaration to appeal to his audience because this was recent history, and the day that he is giving the speech is the anniversary of the Declaration. The metaphor of the ringbolt also works well: just as it is what holds the chain together, the Declaration holds together Douglas’ ideas of appeal, as does the Christian idea of sin and Jesus’ sacrifice in Wheatley’s argument.

Wheatley and Douglass have thus successfully established themselves as equals. Because they are now on a level playing field with their audiences, they are now able to teach them lessons. In her call to action, Wheatley tells the students to “improve [their] privileges while they stay” (Wheatley 21). They have a limited time in this world, and they must use it to take advantage of what they have and do good with it. They must “redeem” each hour in order to make sure that good news about them is sent to heaven, because God is always watching them to make sure that they are doing the right thing (Wheatley 22-23). She has given them a lesson and now is telling them to do something with it. Also, both the second and third stanzas have lines relating to news, but while the former concerns God’s news of his salvation from Heaven to earth, the latter concerns reports coming up to heaven on whether or not the gift is accepted and earned or not. The gift is the equality granted by God to all through his son’s sacrifice for their sins. The equality is a natural one of opportunity, but the outcome of the students’ actions is what matters. The threat to this is sin, and Wheatley tells her students to guard themselves against it and “suppress the deadly serpent in its egg”, referring to the Serpent of Satan at Eden in the Bible (Wheatley 26). They must suppress even sinful thoughts, as they can grow into sinful beliefs which later become actions. This connects to serpents because just as they can strike stealthily and kill you if you are not on guard, sin can do the same. She calls the students “blooming plants of the human race divine”, because as plants help give life to the world, the students will enrich it with their knowledge (Wheatley 27). However, serpents can ruin and destroy plants, just as the temptation to use intelligence for evil can mess up the world.

If even she, an enslaved “Ethiop” and convert from paganism, can use her equality of opportunity in God’s eyes to shun sin and change the world, then surely the students can do the same (Wheatley 28). She is extending an olive branch, a hand of invitation, rather than condemning them for her enslaved status or the racism against black Americans prevalent at that time. She purposefully leaves the good things that she wants the students to do ambiguous, because instead of telling the students what to do, she wants to leave them a choice. But at the same time, by her Christian justifications for equality and her achievements as an “Ethiop”, she hopes to implicitly inspire the idea within the students that she is equal to them and thus have them work for equality. If they do not do so, then they will not be sincere Christians. The poem ends with a warning: if they do not reject sin, they may feel temporary sweetness, but it will lead to the sinking of their soul and punishment. She ends the poem like this, rather than in a good tone, because sometimes warnings and fear can have a better effect in getting a message to sink in. She is telling them that sin does give temporary gratification, but that it will eventually lead to eternal punishment. It is better to suffer now so that they can have God’s grace. This can relate to the idea of equality because there may be some ease in denying it: indeed, slavery did make some things easier for people like the white slave masters. But in the end, this only led the nation to bad things like the Civil War later.

Douglass’ tone, like Wheatley’s, is forgiving and hopeful, but he is still spiteful and laments his situation. Earlier when he is talking about the revolutionaries’ plight, he expresses hope because “America was so young” (Douglass 1). He compares nations to streams, which “are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages” (Douglass 2). This metaphor works because rivers are symbols of civilization as they are life-giving: all the early civilizations, such as the Babylonians and Egyptians, sprang up on rivers. Rivers are sources of water, they often make their banks and the land around them fertile for farming, and they allow for easy transport. The flowing of rivers is also a metaphor for the passing of time. But what Douglass is also saying, is that old nations and civilizations have difficulties changing their flaws since they have many years of accumulated traditions and values, while a young nation like America can redress her faults. This is like Wheatley’s warning to suppress the serpent: the more time passes the stronger it will get. Douglass urges them to “stand by the principles of the Declaration of Independence” and warns of “dark and threatening clouds and heavy billows”, representing slavery and possibly the secession of the South,  threatening the ship of state, America. Douglass tells his audience to “cling to the principles” of the Declaration like “a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight”, as they are the only thing that can save them (Douglass 4). This is like Wheatley saying that only sticking to their Christian faith and principles can save the students.

He then scolds the audience “wearing out and wasting the hard-earned fame of their fathers to cover their indolence”, “folly” and “wickedness”, making them inferior to their fathers for violating their principles (Douglass 7). The use of the word “indolence” may connect this to Wheatley’s point about transient sweetness: one reason that white slaveholders have black slaves could be because they are too lazy to do their own work. He also compares them with the “children of Jacob”, or the Israelites who “had long lost his faith and spirit” of Abraham (Douglass 7). This is significant, since according to the Bible, when the Jews turned their back on God, they suffered horribly, enduring attacks by different Middle Eastern peoples such as the Assyrians and later having their temple and kingdom destroyed by Babylon and dispersed from their homeland. He tells them that it is “dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes were thrown down by the Almighty and buried it in irrecoverable ruin”. He asks if “the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice in the Declaration extend to his people.” Douglass laments that he is “not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary” and asks if they mean to mock him by that he is asked to speak (Douglass 7). He is accusing them of hypocrisy here, since they have failed to stick to the Declaration of Independence, and wonders what the point of it having is if he and his fellow black Americans are not included in it. It is also significant that he addresses them as “citizens” at this point in the speech although before he said “fellow-citizens”, showing how the listeners are making him inferior and thus violating their national values. Now that Douglass’ audience is drawn in, he can unleash his lesson with his harsh tone to get the audience to feel shame and regret and get them to change the fact that the equality written on a piece of paper is not the reality, but is rather is like a broken promise. He is also harsher than Wheatley probably because Wheatley was speaking before the nation was born, so they had a chance to get rid of slavery and build a free nation, but 76 years have passed, and slavery and the suffering of black Americans continues. Douglass speaks with the anger and pain that one would feel about a broken promise. In a way, Wheatley had given them the chance to make a change and they had failed to, which is why Douglass scolds them despite giving them a second chance.

Both Wheatley and Douglass give sermons in their works. But before those sermons the audience must know who they are, which is why they introduce themselves and assert their own faults. The former writes poems which are general overviews of the Christian core message, while the other delivers an Independence Day speech recounting the plight of the colonists and praising them and their Declaration of Independence. But both are used as appeals to authority in affirming the equality of the African American speakers with their white audiences. After affirming their natural and theoretical equality, both ask their audiences to do good and make it a reality: Wheatley does so implicitly by telling the students to use their privileges and be moral, while Douglas expresses hope in the youth of the nation while expressing his anger at his people not sharing in its promises and warning his audience against failing to keep them. This forgiving and faithful tone in the nation’s virtues would also be used by other black civil rights leaders such as Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr, with the latter helping end segregation and earning increased civil rights for African Americans despite his assassination. Leaders in other countries like Gandhi also come to mind, as they were able to achieve their goals through peaceful, forgiving means. This message is helpful and informative regardless of your faith.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Foner, Philip S. Frederick Douglass: Selected Speches and Writings. Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 1999. 188-206. PDF.

Wheatley, Phillis. “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Baym, Nina, Robert S. Levine and Wayne Franklin. The Norto nAnthology of American Literature Eighth Editio. W W Norton & Co Inc, 1966. 764. PDF.

Wheatley, Phillis. “To the University of Cambridge, in New England.” Baym, Nina, Robert S. Levine and Wayne Franklin. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Eigth Edition. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2011. 766. PDF.