Cain

Cain symbolizes the use of religion to excuse racism. Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, killed his brother Abel and was marked by God for punishment. For much of history, this mark was thought to be represented by black skin, and thus Blackness associated with the sin of Cain. However, in this poem, Wheatley inverts this association, reminding white Christian readers that Black people can be sanctified as much as they can.

Blackness

In this poem, Blackness is decidedly not a symbol. The speaker introduces the fact that many people read Blackness as symbolic of evil, a "diabolic die" (6). In Wheatley's era, the color black, and thus by extension Black people, were associated with evil and with the devil. However, Wheatley rejects this symbolism, carefully demonstrating that Blackness is not a sign that can be read in any moral sense, any more than whiteness can...