How i got over.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

"Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,
Taught my benighted 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, bklack as Cain,
May be refined, and join the angelic train.

  —Phyllis Wheatley, The Poems of Phyllis Wheatley ed. Julian D. Mason, Jr. (U of NC Press, 1966)