Background

Jupiter Hammon was born on October 17, 1711 in Lloyd Harbor, New York, in a house now known as Lloyd Manor. The first definite reference to him is found in a letter dated May 19, 1730, that shows him as being treated for a rheumatic disorder.

His mother and father were part of the first shipment of slaves to the Lloyd's estate in 1687. Unlike most slaves, his father, named Obadiah, had learned to read and write.

Education

The Lloyds encouraged Jupiter Hammon to attend school, where he also learned to read and write. He attended school with the Lloyd children.

Career

Jupiter Hammon was first owned by Henry Lloyd, who died in 1763 and left him in the part of the inheritance that fell to Joseph Lloyd, one of his four sons. For sometime during the Revolutionary War Hammon lived in Hartford, Connecticut, since Joseph Lloyd had been compelled to leave Long Island when the British and Hessians overran it; and when this owner died in the course of the war, he fell into the possession of John Lloyd Jr. , Joseph's grandson.

His first poem antedated by several years that of Phillis Wheatley, who is commonly regarded as the first Negro voice in American literature. This was An Evening Thought. Salvation by Christ, with Penetential Cries: Composed by Jupiter Hammon, a Negro Belonging to Mr. Lloyd, of Queen's Village, on Long Island, the 25th of December, 1760, printed as a broadside in New York, evidently in 1761. The poem consists of eighty-eight lines, and, like all of Hammon's work, emphasizes the religious motive, the word "salvation" appearing no less than twenty-three times.

The second publication, a poetical address to Phillis Wheatley, dated Hartford, August 4, 1778, was also in broadsheet form. Only one original copy, that of the Connecticut Historical Society, is now known to exist. This production, having more personal interest than the first, is somewhat stronger and more imaginative. Then followed An Essay on the Ten Virgins (1779); and A Winter Piece (Hartford, 1782), largely in prose but containing on the last two pages "A Poem for Children, with Thoughts on Death. " An Evening's Improvement, written toward the close of the war, is of special biographical interest since it contains a poetical dialogue entitled "The Kind Master and Dutiful Servant. " Of more intrinsic importance than any of the verse is An Address to the Negroes of the State of New York, originally presented to the members of the African Society in the City of New York on September 24, 1786, and printed in New York early in 1787. It was immediately reprinted in Philadelphia by order of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and there was a third edition after Hammon's death.

Hammon's poems follow a strict, mechanical rhyme scheme and meter, and, like his sermons, exhort the reader to seek salvation by obeying the will of God. He appears to have extended this notion of Christian piety to his domestic situation and refused to speak out in public against slavery. The strong style is the author's, but the spelling was corrected by the printers. The address shows Hammon as feeling it his duty to bear slavery with patience but as strongly disapproving of the system and urging that young slaves be manumitted. It is worthy of note that in his will, dated 1795, John Lloyd Jr. , directed that certain of his slaves be set free on arriving at the age of twenty-eight. The last definite reference to Hammon bears the date of October 6, 1790, when he was sent by his master with money to pay a debt. Because of the difficulty in locating his poems, it was only later that he began to receive the attention he deserved.

His death was not recorded. He is thought to have died sometime around 1806 and is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on the Lloyd property.

Achievements

• Jupiter Hammon went down in history as one of the first African American poets and founders of African-American literature. His speech and his poetry are often included in anthologies of notable African-American and early American writing.

Works

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  • An address to the Negroes in the state of New-York.

    ( Title: An address to the Negroes in the state of New-Yo...)

  • Jupiter Hammon, American Negro Poet: Selections from his Writings and a Bibliography
  • America's first Negro poet;: The complete works of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island (Empire State historical publications series)

Religion

Jupiter Hammon was a devoted Christian. He is known to have purchased a Bible from his master in 1773.

According to some sources, he preached among fellow slaves.

Personality

Jupiter Hammon was a dutiful and trusted servant, so highly esteemed by the members of the Lloyd family in his later years that they helped him to place his verses before the public.

Connections

Supposedly, Jupiter Hammon never married.

Father:

Obadiah Hammon

References

• America's first Negro poet : the complete works of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island.
• American Slavery: 1619-1877 (10th Anniversary Edition)
• The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800