The American Revolution reinvented the American Dream.
While the Dream existed as a prototype, liberal Enlightenment ideals of freedom and happiness added new layers of complexity and more explicit oppressive undertones (Norton “Reason”).
European writers like John Locke heavily influenced the “founding fathers” of the United States. This merge of liberalism with a country’s founding resulted in a state that touted their basic principles as those of freedom (Norton “Reason”). However, this early American state was far from touting freedom for all its people. Instead, it put forth privileged images of success that many Americans could never achieve in the same way. Benjamin Franklin, for example, is the “bootstraps” golden boy, making himself into an integral feature of American history after arriving in Pennsylvania with nothing but empty pockets. The American Dream perpetuates his story of success as one available to all Americans, though that couldn’t be further from the truth.
(Belasco 427-429)
Phillis Wheatley, an African American poet, is Benjamin Franklin’s less-privileged counterpart. Wheatley copes with the deceiving nature of her American Dream through her poetry. As an African-American slave, she believes that Africans in America deserve every ounce of freedom and happiness that American founders outlined. However, she also knows that she operates in a very delicate position: while the poetry she wrote as a slave was widely adored, her slave status still risked her severe punishment if she said the wrong thing in the wrong way.
In “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” she navigates the dualistic world she lives in with a sort of dualistic conveyance of her thoughts. When she says, “‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,” (1) she is praising those who stole her from her family in Africa. It is through this praise that she establishes herself as a “trustworthy” figure to her oppressors: since she recognizes white, Christian superiority, she poses no danger. It is through this avenue that Wheatley then defends her race, stating that “…Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin’d, and join th’angelic train.” (7-8) Of course, Wheatley actually does believe in the Christian doctrine and is happy as a convert, but she also knows that her speaking space is very limited. She knows that, in order to even come close to achieving the American Dream set impossibly far ahead of her, she must first work within its oppressive confines.