Phillis Wheatley Analysis

Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass both lived similar lives. They were both slaves, fighting for liberty and equality. Yet their experience was different. Wheatley was a woman who was brought into America as a slave and Douglass was born into slavery. He knew of no place to call home but the place where he was born, a place that he is not allowed to subsist as a free man. On the other hand, Wheatley came to reconciliation with it. In her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America and Douglass’ essay “What to the slave is the Fourth of July” both use Christianity to connect with their audience, however, they go about this task in different ways.
In the poem, “On being Brought from Africa to America” Wheatley embrace Christianity, “Twas
In his speech, he speaks to his listeners what the 4th of July means to blacks population. He praises and condemns the attitude of American society toward slavery. He questions the audience why should they celebrate a holiday that is base on liberty and equality if everyone does not have that. He said, “ the sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me”(Baym, 1003). He then argues, if the founder fathers of this nation believe that all man are entitled to liberty, and if “slaves are living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and confessing and worshiping the Christian’s God” (p. 1004)” well slaves are man. He asked a lot of these insightful questions in his speech to open his listeners’ eyes to the truth. He pleaded to those who have the same view of equality “any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, would you argue more, and rebuke less” (p. 1003). He concludes his speech on an optimistic note that those who are on his side to continue pushing for change. The American slavery cannot be hidden