Who wrote "On Being Brought from Africa to America"?

• A. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• B. Anne Bradstreet
• C. Phillis Wheatley
• D. Paul Laurence Dunbar

Answer: (C)

This question tests authorship of a famous poem. The poem On Being Brought from Africa to America was written by Phillis Wheatley. She was an enslaved African American who was brought to Boston and educated, and she published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773, making her one of the earliest African American women to publish in English. The poem reflects a Christian perspective and addresses the idea of salvation for Africans, a theme Wheatley presents in her work.

The other poets listed wrote in different times and styles: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a 19th-century American poet known for narrative and epic works; Anne Bradstreet is a 17th-century Puritan poet who wrote about religious and domestic life; Paul Laurence Dunbar is a late 19th/early 20th-century African American poet known for dialect and social themes.