Response Paper
H.G Wells once stated “our true nationality is mankind”. The first Americans certainly did not eschew this principle. In colonial America and across the world, racial superiority of the Caucasians was used as a viable reason to systematically subjugate entire races of people. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson outlines his quasi-scientific conducted research on lack people. This document highlights the racially charged atmosphere of the time period. Phillis Wheatley counters these “scientific observations” of the inherent subordinate position of black people through her religiously motivated poetry. This time period highlights how racial inequality was justified and showed the determination and creativity …show more content…
In his opening remarks he states that “the fine mixtures of red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less suffusions of color in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony, which reigns in the countenances, that immovable veil of black which covers all emotions of the other race?” (Norton 74). In this statement alone, it becomes exceedingly clear, Jefferson’s opinion of black people. They are less than white people because they lack variety in their coloring. They are unable to produce facial emotions due to this “monotony” of their features. Jefferson continues with his “research” to find that black people have less hair, “secrete less in the kidneys”, perspire more, have a greater resistance to heat, and require less sleep (Norton 75). This research creates a striking image of the way the people of early America viewed blacks. Jefferson used biased assumptions to confirm his data. Black people need less sleep? Since they were forced to work long hours, it wasn’t really their decision how much sleep they needed. It was determined by their owners. They had a higher heat resistance? Working outside for long periods of time creates this resistance. Jefferson continues with his notes to examine the lack of creativity of the black population and their inability to produce anything of merit in the arts. He lambasts Phillis Wheatley comparing her to a disfigured Pope. …show more content…
She wrote religiously focused poetry. In her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America, she examines the religious aspects of slavery. In the opening line she states “mercy brought me from my pagan land” (Wheatley). This line hold an ironic element. The mercy she writes also kidnaped her at age seven, ripped her from her parents and everything she had ever knew to take her to a foreign country to be sold as a slave. The land she lived may not have held god, but it was hers, as seen it the words “my pagan land” (Wheatley). In the middle section of the stanza she discusses her coming to understand god and her experiences with the racism of the people who scorned her faith. She ends the poem by issuing a rebuttal to those that scorn her, “Remember, Christians, Negroes…may be refined, and join the angelic train” (Wheatley). This is a dangerously bold statement for a slave to make. She is proclaiming that after being redeemed by god, race no longer matters as everyone who accepts god is equal to him. After death, all believers will go to the same heaven, not a racially segregated
H.G Wells once stated “our true nationality is mankind”. The first Americans certainly did not eschew this principle. In colonial America and across the world, racial superiority of the Caucasians was used as a viable reason to systematically subjugate entire races of people. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson outlines his quasi-scientific conducted research on lack people. This document highlights the racially charged atmosphere of the time period. Phillis Wheatley counters these “scientific observations” of the inherent subordinate position of black people through her religiously motivated poetry. This time period highlights how racial inequality was justified and showed the determination and creativity …show more content…
In his opening remarks he states that “the fine mixtures of red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less suffusions of color in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony, which reigns in the countenances, that immovable veil of black which covers all emotions of the other race?” (Norton 74). In this statement alone, it becomes exceedingly clear, Jefferson’s opinion of black people. They are less than white people because they lack variety in their coloring. They are unable to produce facial emotions due to this “monotony” of their features. Jefferson continues with his “research” to find that black people have less hair, “secrete less in the kidneys”, perspire more, have a greater resistance to heat, and require less sleep (Norton 75). This research creates a striking image of the way the people of early America viewed blacks. Jefferson used biased assumptions to confirm his data. Black people need less sleep? Since they were forced to work long hours, it wasn’t really their decision how much sleep they needed. It was determined by their owners. They had a higher heat resistance? Working outside for long periods of time creates this resistance. Jefferson continues with his notes to examine the lack of creativity of the black population and their inability to produce anything of merit in the arts. He lambasts Phillis Wheatley comparing her to a disfigured Pope. …show more content…
She wrote religiously focused poetry. In her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America, she examines the religious aspects of slavery. In the opening line she states “mercy brought me from my pagan land” (Wheatley). This line hold an ironic element. The mercy she writes also kidnaped her at age seven, ripped her from her parents and everything she had ever knew to take her to a foreign country to be sold as a slave. The land she lived may not have held god, but it was hers, as seen it the words “my pagan land” (Wheatley). In the middle section of the stanza she discusses her coming to understand god and her experiences with the racism of the people who scorned her faith. She ends the poem by issuing a rebuttal to those that scorn her, “Remember, Christians, Negroes…may be refined, and join the angelic train” (Wheatley). This is a dangerously bold statement for a slave to make. She is proclaiming that after being redeemed by god, race no longer matters as everyone who accepts god is equal to him. After death, all believers will go to the same heaven, not a racially segregated