SOURCE: "Jupiter Hammon's Poetic Exhortations," in CLA Journal, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, September, 1974, pp. 22-8.

In the following excerpt, Palmer criticizes Hammon's poetic style and his "intoxication " with religion, suggesting that Hammon could have made a stronger statement against slavery.

Throughout his life, Hammon was able to reach remarkable stages of self-awareness and self-assertiveness. In this regard, Hughes and Bontemps state that "Hammon was an intelligent and privileged slave, respected by his master for his skill with tools and by some of his fellow slaves for his power as a preacher" [Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, eds., The Poetry of the Negro, 1949]. Thus, first as a preacher and later as a published poet, Hammon emerged as one of the foremost and influential shapers of non-militant modes of thinking and of religious preoccupations of his people.

The preaching tradition, along with the saving of souls, caught up in the black...