Baquaqua : Afro-Diasporic Text Corpus

Phillis Wheatley 1768

‘TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic dye.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join the angelic train.

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell p. 18.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/18/mode/2up

Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer