What Being American Meant In 1780

In 1780, the notion of being American meant different things depending on ones identity. To Thomas Jefferson, among the architects of the new nation, it meant deserving ones liberty, and he believed that certain people were ill-suited for what he considered the demands of an enligh goed society.In particular, he believed blacks and whites could never coexist because of bondages legacy, citing Deep-rooted prejudices entertained by whites and ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained (Binder, 1968, p.55-56). In addition, he considered them intellectually inferior.He considered America an improvement over other nations, and while he snarl ambivalent about slavery and sympathetic toward blacks, he did not view a multiracial America. For poet Phyllis Wheatley, an African-American who spent years in slavery and lived in poverty, being an American meant barriers and contradictions based on race. Wheatley, whose poetry Jefferson belief below the digni ty of criticism (Robinson, 1982, pp.42-43), was well aware of Americas racial contradictions (a nominally free nation which still embraced slavery) but thus far asked white America for tolerance and acceptance. In On being Brought from Africa to America, the fabricator is optimistic about America and grateful for being part if it Twas favor brought me from my Pagan land but also admits, Some view our sable brush race with scornful eye, /There colour is a diabolic decline (Robinson, 1975, p. 60). However, her closing appeal is not for liberty and full referity, but barely a reminder that blacks can at least be equal as Christians, in Gods eyes.To Jefferson, part of Americas elite, being American meant freedom for those who met his standards, while Wheatley, aware of Americas racial situation, makes an appeal for at least spiritual equality. Being American meant being free though race was used as a means of denying freedom to all. REFERENCES Binder, F. M. (1968). The Color P roblem in Early case America. Paris Mouton. Robinson, W. H. (1975). Phyllis Wheatley in the Black American Beginnings. Detroit Broadside Press. Robinson, W. H. (1982). Critical Essays of Phyllis Wheatley. capital of Massachusetts G. K. Hall and Company