On October 17, 1711, an enslaved woman on Long Island, New York, gave birth
to a son. That child, named Jupiter Hammon, was of course also a slave (albeit
a very special slave, and one who became a recognized poet and essayist). He
lived for many years -- probably into the 19th century -- and while throughout
his life he wished and hoped that other slaves would be set free, for himself
he was content to remain the property of another. He had found freedom in his
writings and in his faith in God, and wanted to pass that along - to share the
freedom of the mind and the spirit with others.
Actually, when Jupiter Hammon spoke of being a slave, he usually used the word
"servant." And truly, his treatment and upbringing were markedly different
from those of countless enslaved, downtrodden, and abused persons of African
origin or descent.
His privileges were many. Along with the manor's other children, he was taught
by a Harvard-educated schoolmaster; beyond that, he is not known to have
received any formal education. However, he was apparently invited or at least
allowed to use the master's library; and it seems that as he read, he learned
much about how to command the English language to do his bidding.
When he was in his early twenties, he purchased from his owner a copy of the
Bible. Exhorting other slaves to become literate as well, he nevertheless
cautioned
them that this was the only book worth their time: "Get those who can read, to
learn
you; but remember, that what you learn for, is to read the Bible. If there was
no
Bible, it would be no matter whether you could read or not. Reading other books
would do you no good."
In 1761, with "An Evening Thought. Salvation by Christ, with Penitential
Cries,"
he became the first black poet to be published in America. He based his rhythms
on the strongly accented cadences of hymns, and his subject matter was that of
an evangelical Christian.
An example might be these lines from "A Poem for Children with Thoughts on
Death."
Remember youth the time is short,
Improve the present day.
And pray that God may guide your thoughts,
And teach your lips to pray.
To pray unto the most high God,
And beg restraining grace.
Then by the power of his word,
You'll see the Savior's face.
Other titles included "A Winter Piece," "An Evening's Improvement," and "A
Dialogue Entitled the Kind Master and the Dutiful Servant."
He wrote prose, too. In 1787, when he was 76 and had witnessed - in fact, with
his owners, run from -- the military action of America's Revolutionary War, he
penned an open letter to ". . . the Negroes in the State of New-York." In it,
he
stated "That liberty is a great thing we may know from our own feelings, and we
may likewise judge so from the conduct of the white people in the late war";
and
went on, "I must say that I have hoped that God would open their eyes, when
they
were so much engaged for liberty, to think of the state of the poor blacks, and
to pity us."
But that was not to be; not for decades at the very least. Certainly not within
his lifetime, which spanned roughly the same years as those of Benjamin
Franklin
and Jonathan Edwards.
Edwards, Franklin, and Hammon: It is intriguing, is it not, to imagine the
conversation
that might have flowed between the three of them, could they have sat down
together
for a chat? And as long as we're speculating, let's invite Thomas Jefferson to
take the
fourth chair; then we can sit back and enjoy.
Hammon's "Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York" - a veritable
epistle -- is at
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/etext/readex/20400.html
Images from his youth and samples of his writing are at:
http://www.lihistory.com/4/hs423a.htm
Here is his first printed poem:
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/jhammon.htm
His poem to the poet Phillis Wheatley is reproduced at
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/hammon_poem.html
To learn more about writings by people of color, you could visit
http://drum.ncat.edu/~drwww/lit.html
Copyright 1998 by The Big Network. All rights reserved.
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