Poems On Various Subjects, Religous And Moral
‘Twas
mercy brought me from my pagan land,
Taught my beknighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s
a Savior too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor
knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful
eye,
“Their
color is a diabolic dye.”
Remember Christians; Negroes, black as
Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic
train.
—Phillis
Wheatley, 1773
First published black poet in US
