That there's a god, that there's a savior too:.
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,.
"Their color is a diabolic die.".
Remember Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,.
Maybe refin'd and join th' angelic train. .
As noted in Shuffelton, "Phillis Wheatley learned the power of speaking doubly as African and American," (Shuffelton, 230). Wheatley parallels her own being with the structure of the poem. Just as the poet is comprised of two racial identities, this poem is formed by two quatrains each dedicated to voicing those views. The first quatrain draws upon her new self as an American. It speaks of slavery as being a positive advancement for Africans. Through these lines Phillis condones slavery, as she believes it is a tool that will allow blacks to become more civilized. She uses religion in her argument, writing that it was through God's own "mercy," that she was saved from her "pagan" land and allowed .
her to seek redemption. .
Before God, her soul was "benighted" because she lived in darkness. She had not yet been exposed to an intellectual or religious upbringing. Finding God in her life was like turning on a light switch for Phillis Wheatley. God illuminated her soul and saved her from the darkness she had always known. Despite not supporting slavery itself, she does give thanks for the religious enlightenment she received through becoming a slave and finding Christianity in her own life. .
The second stanza takes a very different approach, as it is representative of Wheatley's voice as an African. In the first two lines Phillis Wheatley acknowledges the racists attitudes of whites Americans. She voices the fact that many see her race only in a negative connotation. She recognizes that many whites believed Africans' dark skin color was representative of the devil, as she refers to what many whites see as "diabolic die." Here, die is another spelling for what we now call dye.