To the University of Cambridge, in New England...

"Students, to you 'tis given to scan the heights
Above, to traverse the ethereal space

And mark the systems of revolving worlds.

Still more, ye sons of science ye receive

The blissful news by messengers from Heav'n

How Jesus' blood for your redemption flows.

See Him with hands outstretched upon the cross;"

Phillis Wheatley 1773

Phillis Wheatley was an African American slave, brought to American from Africa to serve the Wheatley family, specifically to keep Mrs. Susannah Wheatley company. Susannah taught Phillis English and Latin enabling Phillis to become more and more educated. She became a published, prominent writer at the age of 19 or 20. Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock are two of the people who made sure she truly wrote what she claimed to have written, being that she was 1) female and 2) an African American slave. 

She was a firm believer in Jesus Christ and held true to Puritan beliefs, in the midst of the Enlightenment era of America. In the above excerpt, Phillis is giving a speech to the upper-class, white, male graduating class of Harvard University. She is telling them that as they make new scientific discoveries and allow knowledge acquisition to fill their lives, they should not lose sight of Jesus. He died on the cross for them... 

Amen to this! I was reading this in American Literature earlier today, and I was enthralled by Phillis's prose. They way she describes the students as "sons of science... mark[ing] the systems of revolving worlds" is so, so WELL-WRITTEN. 

I love how big a role God plays in past American Literature. Even as America claimed to have moved into Enlightenment thinking (social realm > spiritual realm; knowledge acquisition; independence and self-sufficiency), Phillis's poems are being published. God had His hand under our country then just as He does now, and He has his hand under our lives, lifting us up daily. That's powerful stuff people!

Happy Valentine's Day. <3