“It is not impossible that some of the most learned and polished nations of the world may be found to have sprung from Africa.”

Challenging racist assumptions about African civilisation and intellectual achievement · Letter to Samson Occom, 1774

• Fame
• Hope
• Truth

“The same principle lives in us all.”

Emphasising the shared humanity underlying the struggle for liberty · Letter to Samson Occom, 1774

• Faith
• Freedom
• Truth

“I, who was but a few years ago in the deplorable state of a poor African slave, am now numbered among the poets.”

Reflecting on the extraordinary change in her social and literary position · Letter to Samson Occom, 1774

• Fame
• Hope
• Poetry

“That it was not the small-pox that brought me to America, but I was brought from Africa to America.”

Recalling the circumstances of her enslavement with directness and moral force · Letter to Samson Occom, 1774

• Memory
• Truth
• War

“In every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.”

Asserting that the desire for freedom is universal and divinely implanted · Letter to Samson Occom, 1774

• Faith
• Freedom
• War