On Being Brought from Africa to America

Essay Questions

1. How does Wheatley use the conventions of 18th-century Christian rhetoric both to conform to and to subvert the expectations of her white colonial audience in "On Being Brought from Africa to America"?

(AQA AO1/AO2 — form, structure, and language; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)

1. To what extent is the tone of "On Being Brought from Africa to America" best described as devout gratitude, and to what extent is it an act of calculated social critique? In your response, consider how the poem's shift in focus — from personal testimony to direct address — shapes the overall argument Wheatley constructs.

(AQA AO1/AO2; IB guiding concept: Perspective)

1. How does Wheatley employ biblical symbolism — particularly the figures of Cain and the angelic train — to challenge the theological justifications used to uphold slavery and racial hierarchy in colonial America?

(AQA AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Transformation)

1. "Wheatley builds her moral argument using the very standards her oppressors profess to uphold." How far do you agree that the poem's power lies in its strategic use of the coloniser's own language and belief system against them?

(AQA AO1/AO3 — context and critical interpretation; IB guiding concept: Power)

1. How does Wheatley navigate questions of identity in "On Being Brought from Africa to America," given that she simultaneously adopts the language of colonial Christianity and asserts pride in her own racial identity? Consider how the tension between imposed identity and self-definition drives the poem's argument.

(AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Identity)

1. Compare the way Wheatley and ONE other poet you have studied present the relationship between spiritual or religious belief and the experience of oppression. In your response, explore how poetic form and voice shape each poet's engagement with faith as both a source of consolation and a site of resistance.

(AQA AO1/AO2/AO3 — comparative; AP Lit Q2 poetry comparison; IB guiding concept: Faith and Belief)

1. To what extent does "On Being Brought from Africa to America" reframe the concept of freedom — not as physical liberation, but as spiritual and moral equality? Explore how Wheatley's treatment of the afterlife and divine judgement functions as an argument about justice in the present world.

(AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Freedom)

1. How does Wheatley's position as an enslaved poet — writing within strict social and literary constraints — shape the restrained yet confrontational voice of "On Being Brought from Africa to America"? In your answer, consider how the biographical and historical context illuminates the choices she makes in diction, address, and structure.

(AQA AO1/AO3; IB guiding concept: Context and Intertextuality)