Jupiter Hammon

Jupiter Hammon was born in the early 1700s as a slave to a wealthy New York merchant family. He spent his lifetime in slavery as a trusted house servant, and evidently had a special status. He developed a superior command of the English language and, a devout convert to Christianity, preached and wrote religious poetry. Hammon was the first black to be published in America, with eight published pieces over the course of his life, all of them directed at a primarily black audience.

The following viewpoint is excerpted from An Address to the Negroes of the State of New York, a speech delivered before the African Society in New York City in 1786, and published in 1787. Hammon counsels slaves to be obedient to their masters and to concentrate on gaining freedom through religion rather than rebellion. Historians...