Hammon, Jupiter

Impact on the world

Published the broadside poem 'An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries' in 1760, generally recognized as the first literary work published by an African American in North America, though the achievement went unrecognized until the work was rediscovered in a historical society's archive in 1905.

Life & background

Born into slavery at the Lloyd family's Manor House on Long Island, New York, Hammon learned to read and write under circumstances that remain only partially documented, since formal records of enslaved children's education from that era are scarce. He published the broadside 'An Evening Thought' in 1760, now recognized as the first literary work published by an African American, though his achievement remained obscure until the poem was discovered in the New-York Historical Society's collection in 1905. A preacher among his fellow enslaved people at the Manor, Hammon published at least six known poems and three essays over his lifetime, most addressing Christian faith, and his 1786 essay 'An Address to the Negroes of the State of New York' offers a rare firsthand perspective on slavery and race from an enslaved author of the period; in 1778 he wrote a poem addressed to Phillis Wheatley urging her toward a more overtly religious focus in her own writing.

Sources

1. Preservation Long Island; NMAAHC (The Power of Poetry); Encyclopedia.com (African American Literary Experience)