08/11/2025
Jupiter Hammon was born on October 17, 1711. He was a Black poet who became the first African-American published writer in America when a poem appeared in print in 1760. He was a slave his entire life, and the date of his death is unknown. He was living in 1790 at the age of 79, and died by 1806.
Hammon’s 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 Long Island, New York.
Born into slavery at the Lloyd Manor 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 clerk-bookkeeper, he gained wide circulation for his poems about slavery. As a devoted Christian evangelist, Hammon used his biblical foundation to criticize the institution of slavery.
“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 broadside in 1761. The printing and publishing of this poem established Jupiter Hammon as the first published Black poet.
Eighteen years passed before his second work appeared in print, "An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley". Hammon wrote the poem during the Revolutionary War, while Henry Lloyd had temporarily moved his household and enslaved people from Long Island to Hartford, Connecticut, to evade British forces. Phillis Wheatley, 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.
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 African Society 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 Heaven, 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".
Hammon's speech draws heavily on Christian motifs and theology, encouraging Black people to maintain their high moral standards because "being slaves on Earth had already secured their place in heaven." Scholars believe Hammon supported gradual abolition as a way to end slavery, believing that the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people would be challenging to achieve. New York Quakers who supported the abolition of slavery published Hammon's speech, and it was reprinted by several abolitionist groups, including the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
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 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.
