Jupiter Hammon

Jupiter Hammon (October 17, 1711 – ca. 1806)^[1] was a writer. He is known as a founder of African-American literature, because his poem (published in 1761 in New York) was the first by an African American in North America. He published both poetry and prose after that. He was also a preacher and a commercial clerk on Long Island, New York.

Hammon was born into slavery at the Lloyd Manor on Long Island.^[2][3] Hammon learned to read and write. In 1761, 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.^[2] He was also a well-known and well-respected preacher and clerk-bookkeeper. He was widely circulated for his poems about slavery. As a committed Christian evangelist, Hammon criticized slavery based on the Bible.^[4]

Works

• "An Evening Thought" (1761)
• "Untitled" (1770, unpublished)
• "An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly" (1778)
• "An Essay on the Ten Virgins" (1779, lost work)
• "A Winter Piece" (1782)
• "A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death" (1782)
• "An Evening's Improvement" (1783)
• "The Kind Master and Dutiful Servant" (1783)
• "An Essay on Slavery" (1786, unpublished)
• An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York (1787)

References

1. Kautz, Sarah (October 2018). "The Life and Works of Jupiter Hammon (1711–before 1806)". Preservation Long Island.
2. Berry, Faith (2001). From Bondage to Liberation. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. p. 50. ISBN 0-8264-1370-6.
3. Rollins, Charlemae (1965). Famous American Negro Poets. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0396051294.
4. O'Neal, Sondra (1993). Jupiter Hammon and The Biblical Beginnings of African American Literature. The American Theological Library Association and The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-2479-5.

Other websites

• Works by Jupiter Hammon at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)