I lived from 1711-1800.
Jupiter Hammon was born October 7, 1711. He was a poet and the first Black writer in America. He was one of the founders of Africa American literature. He was a slave his entire life, owned by three generations of the Lloyd family of Long Island ,New York. Many consider Phyllis Wheatley as America’s first published African-American poet, but Jupiter Hammon published an 88-line broadside containing the poem "An Evening Thought. Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries". It was written on Christmas Day, 1760, when Phyllis was seven years old. That was ten years before her first broadside publication. His second publication of poetry came seventeen years later and honors Phyllis Wheatley
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Hammon was born a slave on Manor House estate. He was the property of Henry Lloyd of Lloyd’s Neck, Long Island. Unlike most slaves, Jupiter was allowed to attend a rudimentary school built on the premises and learned to read and write. He was a favorite servant and became a clerk in the family business, a farmhand, and an artisan. The Lloyd business interests spread through Boston, Connecticut, the West Indies and London. When Henry Lloyd died in 1763, Hammon became the property of Joseph Lloyd, who was a patriot. He was forced to flee from his home with his family and slaves to Connecticut as the British closed in during the Revolutionary War.
Like the Lloyd’s, Hammon was a fervent Christian. When he was 22 years old, he purchased a Bible from his master for seven shillings and sixpence. He became a preacher among fellow slaves and his writings reflect his deep spirituality. While he was a slave to John Lloyd, Junior, Hammon wrote "Address to the Negro: in the State of New York", in 1786, and gave it as a speech to the African Society. In the speech he stated that while he personally had no wish to be free, he did wish others, especially "the young Negroes, were free." He wrote the speech at age seventy-six. It contains the famous quote, ""If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves."
Hammon's sermons, written in the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary eras, express the gathering political significance of blacks in the period. He mentions the deaths of blacks in the War for Independence and suggests the possibility of a virtuous black nation within the American nation, and speaks of petitions for freedom on the part of black slaves. His sermons mounted a firm appeal for black moral and social autonomy. Hammon said that Black people should maintain their high moral standards precisely because being slaves on Earth had already secured their place in heaven. Hammon's speech also promoted the idea of a gradual emancipation as a way of ending slavery. He knew that slavery was deeply entrenched in American society and that immediate emancipation of all slaves would be difficult to achieve.
During his life, Jupiter Hammon wrote nine pieces of prose and poetry. The exact year of his death is not known, but it is believed that he died in 1806.
My poetry
O ye young and thoughtless youth,
Come seek the living God,
68 lines
Salvation comes by Jesus Christ alone,
The only Son of God;
88 lines
O, come you pious youth: adore
The wisdom of thy God.
84 lines
Master.
Come my servant, follow me,
145 lines
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