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124:, then enslaved in Massachusetts, published her first book of poetry in 1773 in London. She is recognized as the first published black female author. Hammon never met Wheatley but was a great admirer. His dedication poem to her contained twenty-one rhyming quatrains, each accompanied by a related Bible verse. Hammon believed his poem would encourage Wheatley along her Christian journey.
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system, likely in exchange for his cooperative attitude. Hammon's ability to read and write aided his holders in their commercial businesses; these supported institutionalized slavery. It has been argued that Hammon's goal was to take advantage of literary skills by exhibiting intellectual awareness
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Hammon's entire body of work consists of eight publications: four poems and four prose pieces, all with religious content. "An
Address to Negroes in the State of New York" was Hammon's last literary work and likely his most influential. It is believed that Jupiter Hammon died within or before the
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on Long Island, Hammon learned to read and write. In 1761, at nearly 50, Hammon published his first poem, "An
Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries". He was the first African-American poet published in North America. Also a well-known and well-respected preacher and
180:. The poem, dated 1786, is described by McCown as a 'shifting point' in Hammon's worldview surrounding slavery. The second was found in 2015 by Claire Bellerjeau, a researcher investigating the Townsend family and their slaves who lived at Raynham Hall in nearby Oyster Bay.
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In 1778, Hammon published "The Kind Master and
Dutiful Servant", a poetic dialogue, followed by "A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death" in 1782. These works set the tone for Hammon's "An Address to Negros in the State of New York". At the inaugural meeting of the
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in New York City on
September 24, 1786, Hammon delivered what became known as the Hammon "Address to Negroes of the State of New-York". He was seventy-six years old and still enslaved. In his address he told the crowd, "If we should ever get to
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to serve the Lloyd family continually after their purchase. Born into slavery at the Lloyd Manor (at what is now Lloyd Harbor, New York), Hammon served the Lloyd family his entire life, working under four generations of the family.
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The facts of Hammon's personal life are limited. Opium and Rose, enslaved people purchased by Henry Lloyd, are believed to have been the parents of
Jupiter Hammon. They are the first enslaved people on record in the
47:, as his poem published in 1761 in New York was the first by an African American man in North America. He subsequently published both poetry and prose. In addition, he was a preacher and a commercial clerk on
137:, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves." He also said that while he had no wish to be free, he did wish others, especially "the young negroes, were free".
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year 1806. Though his death was not recorded, Hammon was believed to be buried separately from the Lloyds on the Lloyd family property in an unmarked grave.
105:"An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries" was Jupiter Hammon's first published poem. Composed on December 25, 1760, it appeared as a
116:". Hammon wrote the poem during the Revolutionary War, while Henry Lloyd had temporarily moved his household and enslaved people from Long Island to
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through literature. He created literature layered with metaphors and symbols, giving him a safe means to express his feelings about slavery.
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who supported the abolition of slavery published Hammon's speech, and it was reprinted by several abolitionist groups, including the
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as a way to end slavery, believing that the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people would be challenging to achieve. New York
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in 1761. The printing and publishing of this poem established
Jupiter Hammon as the first published Black poet.
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doctoral student Julie McCown discovered the first in the
Manuscripts and Archives library at
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clerk-bookkeeper, he gained wide circulation for his poems about slavery. As a devoted
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Two previously unknown poems by Hammon have been discovered in recent years. In 2011,
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Eighteen years passed before his second work appeared in print, "An
Address to Miss
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529:"UTA Student Discovers Forgotten Poem by Nation's First African-American Writer"
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502:"Gale Schools – Black History Month – Literature – An Address to the Negroes"
394:. The American Theological Library Association and The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
310:. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. p. 50.
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Jupiter Hammon and The
Biblical Beginnings of African American Literature
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The Lloyds allowed Hammon to receive a rudimentary education through the
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Jonathan M. Olly, Long Road to
Freedom: Surviving Slavery on Long Island
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449:"An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York (1787)"
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Jupiter, Hammon (September 22, 1787). Paul, Royster (ed.).
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Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery
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Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
274:"The Life and Works of Jupiter Hammon (1711–before 1806)"
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The Collected Works of Jupiter Hammon: Poems and Essays,
43:) was an American writer who is known as a founder of
473:"An address to the negroes in the state of New-York"
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ed. Cedrick May, University of Tennessee Press, 2017
204:"A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death" (1782)
217:An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York
544:"Researcher discovers new poem by Jupiter Hammon"
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338:. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. pp. 15–16.
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475:. University of Virginia Library. Archived from
248:Preservation Long Island, Jupiter Hammon Project
198:"An Essay on the Ten Virgins" (1779, lost work)
27:Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York
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631:African-American history of New York (state)
210:"The Kind Master and Dutiful Servant" (1783)
195:"An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly" (1778)
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213:"An Essay on Slavery" (1786, unpublished)
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192:"Untitled" (1770, unpublished)
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189:"An Evening Thought" (1761)
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308:From Bondage to Liberation
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418:Hammon, Jupiter (1761).
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201:"A Winter Piece" (1782)
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150:abolition
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