Short answer: text source
Phillis Wheatley's “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
- Unit 2
- 4 points
- About 14 minutes
You read one written source (sometimes two closely related ones) and answer three or four short parts: what the source says, its historical context, and connections to related course content. On the exam: Section II, short-answer question 1 of 3 (required); the three short-answer questions share a suggested 40 minutes and are 18% of the score. In 2025 and 2026 this question had 4 parts (A–D).
The question and its sources
Read the source, then answer parts A, B, C and D. Write a few complete sentences for each part; you don't need a thesis.
Source
’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew,
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.
[Benighted: ignorant or in darkness. Sable: black. Diabolic die: a color (dye) from the devil. Cain: in the Bible, a son of Adam and Eve; some people at the time falsely claimed that dark skin was a mark of Cain.]
Source: Phillis Wheatley, enslaved poet in Boston, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773)
Suggested time: 14 minutes
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Part (A)
1 pointDescribe one claim Wheatley makes in the poem.
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Part (B)
1 pointDescribe a historical context of the poem.
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Part (C)
1 pointUsing a specific example, explain how a formerly enslaved writer used a published narrative to argue against slavery between 1780 and 1865.
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Part (D)
1 pointExplain one way enslaved African Americans blended Christianity with African traditions to create their own religious culture.
0 / 2,500 characters
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