Fetters in the Land of the Free
America, a nation founded for the exploited and persecuted, justified the ownership of other humans by bestowing a divine mission upon themselves: to lead Africans to Christian enlightenment. Thus arises the dilemma of American slavery: If the goal is to save slaves from their evil ways, once reformed, they must be freed and integrated into Western society. But America's wealth was in the bodies it owned— the labor they provided and the lucrative trade of human beings. And so, Manifest Destiny was built as an impenetrable paradox, never intended to succeed. Yet against all odds, Phillis Wheatley, poet and enslaved woman, emerges as a success of American slavery. As captured in the writings of French immigrant turned naturalized American Hector Saint John de Crèvecoeur, the inalienable rights central to American identity were reserved for European immigrants, specifically men. Through her perfect embodiment of her oppressors' performed values, Wheatley forces the society that refuses to recognize her as an equal to grapple with their hypocrisy.
Hector Saint John de Crèvecoeur records the sentiments swirling around newborn America in his piece What is an American?, a precursor to the American Dream. To the settlers who would become Americans, this promising new land represented salvation from the injustices they faced in Europe. Crèvecoeur writes of the immigrant, "his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequences" (1). He asserts that the American has no residual attachment to their country of origin because America has provided them something they lacked in their home country. Whether food or purpose, Americans are united by their loyalty to the land that granted them opportunity. He continues to proclaim the superiority of this social system as Americans' labor is rewarded "without any part being claimed, wither by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord" (Crèvecoeur 1). Crèvecoeur lists the three pillars of European government: the monarchy, the church, and the landowning elite, and claims they do not exercise power over the American individual. Without the hierarchy of European monarchies, all Americans are equal.
Furthermore, America is a land of unity. Crèvecoeur’s What is an American? is the first text to employ the 'melting pot' metaphor, illustrating the unprecedented diversity and cultural exchange of a nation of immigrants. He writes of America, "Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men" (Crèvecoeur 1). He implies that the American "race" will supersede the distinct racial identities of its people. As a result, American identity will be a combination of numerous discrete cultures. Crèvecoeur elaborates, writing that the American must “[leave] behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners" (1) and thus assimilate to a new way of life. A nation cannot be unified if its people perpetuate old-world rivalries. However, as Crèvecoeur emphasizes throughout his piece, this new, progressive race will consist only of Europeans.
As aforementioned, Crèvecoeur excludes all non-whites from his vision of the American design. So, when Phillis Wheatley illustrates her enslavement and forced passage to America as salvation, she challenges the lines white Americans have drawn to separate her from themselves. In the first line of her poem On Being Brought from Africa to America, Wheatley writes, "'twas mercy brought me from my pagan land". Her personification of "mercy" characterizes her enslavers and owners as those carrying out the will of God, granting mercy on her sinful soul. Like the European emigrants Crèvecoeur writes of- finding salvation in the opportunity of America- so has Wheatley found salvation in her Christian re-education.
Moreover, Crèvecoeur argues that without Europe's temperamental kings, overbearing church, and greedy property-owning elites, all American immigrants are equal. Wheatley's very existence contradicts his claim as she is controlled by the elites who own her. By professing her faith in white Christian values, Wheatley utilizes irony to highlight the contradiction in her exclusion from American rights. She refers to the religious enlightenment she has gained since being enslaved, writing it "taught [her] benighted soul to understand/That there's a God…" (Wheatley 2). Wheatley uses benighted to refer both to the moral darkness of her soul before Christian redemption and the dark hue of her skin, equating her physical darkness to her ignorance of God. She continues, emphasizing white society's abhorrence of their reformed Black Christians as she writes, "Some view our sable race with scornful eye" (Wheatley 5). In her second reference to blackness, Wheatley compares the color of her skin to glossy sable fur, a valuable commodity and symbol of material wealth. She argues that once African slaves are converted to Christianity, their blackness can no longer signify ignorance. Instead, it remains a marker of their value as possessions. Wheatley's use of double-entendre when referring to blackness illuminates white Christian's betrayal of their own principles of unity and progress in the face of greed.
Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved Black woman, was the antithesis of Crèvecoeur's American. Nevertheless, America was her salvation, the same as the European emigrants Crèvecoeur wrote of. By placing herself within the narrative that excludes her, Wheatley becomes a revolutionary. Her work reveals the irony of race in America: a society that demonized blackness relied on black bodies to construct their nation. Forging into the literary tradition, she leaves her touch in America's ‘melting pot’ and argues that race is inconsequential to a person's inalienable rights. Phillis Wheatley was one of the first American poets, and yet during her lifetime, no American at all.
17 October 2023