Two Views of Slavery

Two Views of Slavery

During the time prior to the twentieth century our world accepted slavery as a normal part of life. Aphra Behn and Phillis Wheatley, both female authors born about 100 years apart, had their own views of slavery and wrote poems and stories about the subject. These women were physically different, Aphra was a Caucasian, and Phillis was an African American, and their lives were rather different as well. Aphra was a spy and playwright, who lived the middle class life and Phillis, was a slave who was taken from her homeland, brought to America, sold into slavery, then later freed. I believe that both writers’ views were difficult to figure out, especially by just reading their works.

Phillis was born in Senegal/Gambia and was sold into slavery as a very young child. She was acquired by the Wheatley family when she was very young and served her masters wife. She was treated much kinder than most slaves during this period, even though she was bought and held almost as a prisoner as most slaves were. Even though she was considered a slave she was afforded the luxury of learning English and Latin and was allowed to read and as a result admired writers such as John Milton and Alexander Pope. It’s hard to tell what her view on slavery might be. In some of her writings she suggests that slavery was not really a bad thing, as most believe it is/was. In her poem, On being Brought from Africa to America, she tells the story of her journey from her homeland to America. She speaks of how mercy and God’s will brought her from her “pagan land”. (Wheatley 359) In this poem it seems she avoids telling the true story about being kidnapped from her family and everything she knows and loves. Then the poem goes on to say that some p...

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...w slaves. In the end he was murdered in the most brutal way imaginable.

In the end, I have to believe that both authors had views on slavery that served the purpose at the time that they wrote their poems or story. Phillis Wheatley wrote her poems without anger about slavery because she was treated kindly and humanely once she was sold, and lived a better life than most slaves. Aphra Behn, on the other hand, romanticized slavery and then abruptly changed at the end of the story and showed the gruesomeness of how slavery actually was.

Works Cited

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. "Oroonoko." The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. Print

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. "Phillis Wheatley." The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. Print.