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From Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought From Africa To America

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NOT A PRETTY STORY
The African American Literature can be understood as being devided in four distinct stages. Firtly, the non-fictional slave narratives of the 18 and 19th centuries. Secondly, the emergence of longer fictional texts such as novels in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Thridly, the cultural boom of African American art and literature around the 1920s. Finally, a more radical movement starting in the 1960s.
Before dissecting these stages in more details, it is mandatory to mention Phillis Wheatley. Even though she was a slave herself, the literature she produced differered greatly from the slave narratives. She wrote poetry in the lyrical form, very influenced by John Milton’s and Alexander Pope’s poetry and the Greek and Latin classics. Nevertheless, her apparent submission to the white literary tradition, as well as religion is questionable. In the first part of her poem On Being Brought from Africa to America, Wheatley seems to be grateful for the kindness whites have shown her and for presenting her Christianity. Still, towards the end, thanking whites for having brought her to America sneaks in the question of race and the acknowledgement of racism in America. Considering …show more content…
To feed "King Cotton", therefore, a massive domestic slave trade ("the Second Middle Passage”) occurred, separating black families who were stable for years. Slaves were also "procreated” through forced slave pairing or rape. Apart from the use of violence to keep this enormous number of slaves under control, another strategy was applied to keep the international pressures also under control: propaganda showed happy slaves or depicted slavery as being the perfect model for a perfect society. Scientists tried to prove that black people were part of a different specie which was, by nature, suited for

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