Konner NelsonITA 280 – Paper IIProfessor Verduin3/1/14Has Phillis Wheatley sold out her own race? It is easy to come to the conclusion that Wheatley almost seems to be enjoying and celebrating his capture and transportation to America. What we must do as readers of Wheatley is to look beyond this easily drawn conclusion and ask why his poems seem to be so neutral about slavery and the injustice inflicted on his race. Is it because she was a sell-out or were there bigger things at stake for Wheatley in this early period of early American history? To answer this question we must immerse ourselves in Wheatley's mind to better understand the true meaning of his poems, to discover the reason for the neutrality of his poems towards the theme of slavery. In many ways it seems that Wheatley sold his own race in the writing of his poems, but the time in which Wheatley wrote his poems should be taken into consideration. Writing in an environment that would not accept her completely, despite her prestige in the literary world. Wheatley's neutral attitude toward the enslavement of his race may very likely have been a means to the survival of his writing, the only way to maintain his privileged life, as well as a means to his own survival. Wheatley seems to be enjoying or almost celebrating his capture and his bringing to America. She seems almost grateful to have been taken away from her homeland; this is evident in his poem On Being Brought from Africa to America. our black race with scornful eye,"Their color is an evil die."Remember, Christia......middle of paper......er very privileged situation. It was this fear that became the root of his neutral views on slavery and inequality. This very fear is the reason why Wheatley is seen as a "sellout", when it was only a means for the survival of her poetry and her own survival. Due to the fact that Wheatley could not or would not recognize the shared difficulties of a young African artist, combined with her negative portrayals of her homeland, Africa, her desire to adapt to a society she would never fully accept in based on the color of his skin, as well as his inability to speak out against the injustice that enslaves his people, one can only conclude that Wheatley only played the role to maintain what he was privileged to have, his education, his travels, his published works. All at the small cost of his identity in exchange for a life he otherwise wouldn't have had.