Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Jupiter Hammon Illustrated E-Book

Jupiter Hammon

• Herausgeber: Delphi Publishing Ltd
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Delphi Poets Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 185

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The first published African American poet, Jupiter Hammon was born into slavery in 1711 on Long Island, New York. Over the years he became a well-respected preacher and clerk-bookkeeper, as his poems were circulated widely. His poetry is composed in hymn stanzas and is noted for its rhythmic and passionate expression. In later years, attending the 1786 inaugural meeting of the African Society in New York, he delivered ‘An Address to Negros in the State of New-York’ — his most influential work. Only in more recent times have critics started to recognise Hammon’s important contribution to the development of black American literature. The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature’s finest poets, with superior formatting. For the first time in digital publishing, this volume presents Hammon’s complete works, with related illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Hammon’s life and works
* Concise introduction to Hammon’s life and poetry
* Rare recently discovered poems
* Images of how the poetry was first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the poems
* Includes Hammon’s complete prose — with rare essays digitised here for the first time
* A brief biography — discover Jupiter Hammon’s world
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres

CONTENTS:

The Life and Poetry of Jupiter Hammon
Brief Introduction: Jupiter Hammon
An Evening Thought (1760)
Dear Hutchinson is Dead and Gone (1770)
An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley (1778)
A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death (1782)
A Dialogue, Entitled, the Kind Master and the Dutiful Servant (1783)
An Essay on Slavery (1786)

The Prose
A Winter Piece (1782)
An Evening’s Improvement (1783)
An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York (1786)

The Biography
The Negro’s Heritage of Song (1923) by Robert Thomas Kerlin

Leseprobe

Jupiter Hammon

(1711 - c. 1806)

Contents

The Life and Poetry of Jupiter Hammon

Brief Introduction: Jupiter Hammon

An Evening Thought (1760)

Dear Hutchinson is Dead and Gone (1770)

An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley (1778)

A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death (1782)

A Dialogue, Entitled, the Kind Master and the Dutiful Servant (1783)

An Essay on Slavery (1786)

The Prose

A Winter Piece (1782)

An Evening’s Improvement (1783)

An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York (1786)

The Biography

The Negro’s Heritage of Song (1923) by Robert Thomas Kerlin

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2024

Version 1

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Jupiter Hammon

By Delphi Classics, 2024

COPYRIGHT

Jupiter Hammon - Delphi Poets Series

First published in the United Kingdom in 2024 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2024.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 80170 203 4

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [email protected]

www.delphiclassics.com

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NOTE

When reading poetry on an eReader, it is advisable to use a small font size and landscape mode, which will allow the lines of poetry to display correctly.

The Life and Poetry of Jupiter Hammon

The Joseph Lloyd Manor house, Long Island, New York — the site of Jupiter Hammon’s birthplace

Brief Introduction: Jupiter Hammon

The first published African American poet, Jupiter Hammon was born into slavery at Henry Lloyd’s estate on Lloyd Neck, Long Island, New York. The facts of Hammon’s personal life are limited. His parents, Opium and Rose, are the first enslaved people on record in the Lloyd Papers to serve the family continually after their purchase. Their son was apparently allowed access to the manor library and was educated with the estate owner’s children, even working with Henry Lloyd in his business ventures. Hammon served the Lloyds his entire life, working under four generations of the family.

The Lloyds permitted Hammon a rudimentary education through the Anglican Church’s Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts system, likely in exchange for his cooperative attitude. His ability to read and write aided his holders in their commercial businesses, which supported institutionalised slavery. In 1761, at nearly fifty years of age, Hammon published his first poem, An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries. Over the years he became a well-respected preacher and clerk-bookkeeper, gaining wide circulation for his poems. As a devoted Christian evangelist, Hammon used his biblical foundation to condemn — with great subtlety —the institution of slavery.

Eighteen years later he composed An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley during the Revolutionary War, while Henry Lloyd had temporarily moved his household and enslaved people from Long Island to Hartford, Connecticut, to evade the British forces. A fellow poet, Phillis Wheatley was enslaved in Massachusetts, and had published her first book of poetry in 1773 in London. She is recognised as the first published black female author. Hammon never met Wheatley, though he was a great admirer. The dedication contained twenty-one rhyming quatrains, each accompanied by a related Bible verse. Hammon believed the poem would encourage Wheatley along her Christian journey.

The year 1778 saw the publication of The Kind Master and Dutiful Servant, a poetic dialogue, followed by A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death four years later. These poems set the tone for Hammon’s An Address to Negros in the State of New-York — likely his most influential work. At the inaugural meeting of the African Society in New York City in September 1786, he had delivered this landmark address. At the time, he was seventy-six years old and still enslaved. In the address he tells the crowd, “If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves.” He also states that while he had no wish to be free, he did wish others, especially “the young negroes, were free”.

Hammon’s speech draws heavily on Christian motifs and theology, encouraging Black people to maintain their high moral standards since “being slaves on Earth had already secured their place in heaven.” Scholars believe Hammon supported gradual abolition as a way to end slavery, believing that the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people would be challenging to achieve. New York Quakers who supported the abolition of slavery published Hammon’s speech, and it was reprinted by several abolitionist groups, including the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

Two previously unknown poems by Hammon have been discovered in recent years. In 2011 a University of Texas Arlington doctoral student named Julie McCown discovered An Essay on Slavery in the Manuscripts and Archives library at Yale University. The poem, dated to 1786, is described by McCown as a “shifting point” in Hammon’s worldview surrounding slavery. The second poem was Dear Hutchinson is Dead and Gone, initially published in 1770. It was discovered in 2015 by Claire Bellerjeau, a researcher investigating the Townsend family and their slaves that lived at Raynham Hall in nearby Oyster Bay. The three-page poem is a tribute to Anne Hutchinson, a seventeenth-century advocate for civil liberty and religious freedom in the American colonies. In total, there are seven extant poems by Hammon and three essays. A lost poem, entitled An Essay on the Ten Virgins was advertised in the 14 December 1779 issue of the Connecticut Courant, but no copies of the verse have been found.

It is believed that Hammon died within or before the year 1806. Though his death was not recorded, the poet was likely buried separately from the Lloyds on the Lloyd family property in an unmarked grave.

Hammon’s work has not been widely discussed in recent times. Some commentators criticise the poet for his repetitive use of themes and language, as well as his occasional weak syntax, while others find his use of metre and rhymes imperfect. The principal reason for his obscurity, however, is most likely his compliant attitude towards slavery. Certainly, Hammon was not an avid abolitionist and his apparent acceptance of servitude has made him unpopular with modern readers. Still, after more than a century of neglect, critics are now starting to recognise Hammon’s important contribution to the development of early black American literature.

Portrait of Phillis Wheatley in ‘Revue des colonies’, 1837

‘Anne Hutchinson on Trial’ by Edwin Austin Abbey, 1901

An Evening Thought (1760)

This is Hammon’s first published work, entitled An Evening Thought (also referred to as “An Evening Prayer” and “An Evening’s Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries”). Composed on 25 December 1760, it first appeared as a broadside in 1761. The printing and publishing of this poem established Hammon as the first published Black poet.

Given the undeveloped conditions of the colonies in the mid-eighteenth century, for any person to publish a literary work would have been viewed as a great accomplishment, but for a slave to write and publish a poem would have been deemed extraordinary by many. In An Evening Thought, Hammon relates his salvation experience in poetry, offering an exuberant testimony of his close encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The lines are composed in hymn stanzas and are noted for their rhythmic and passionate expression, conveying a heart-felt song of praise from the depths of the poet’s soul.

The first edition

CONTENTS

ORIGINAL DOUBLE COLUMN FORMAT OF ‘AN EVENING THOUGHT’

SINGLE COLUMN MODERNISED TEXT

ORIGINAL DOUBLE COLUMN FORMAT OF ‘AN EVENING THOUGHT’

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.

SALVATION comes by Jeſus Chriſt alone,  The only Son of God;Redemption now to every one,  That love his holy Word.Dear Jeſus we would fly to Thee,  And leave off every Sin,Thy tender Mercy well agree;  Salvation from our King.Salvation comes now from the Lord,  Our victorious King;His holy Name be well ador’d,  Salvation ſurely bring:Dear Jeſus give thy Spirit now,  Thy Grace to every Nation,That han’t the Lord to whom we bow,  The Author of Salvation.Dear Jeſus unto Thee we cry,  Give us thy Preparation;Turn not away thy tender Eye;  We ſeek thy true Salvation.Salvation comes from God we know,  The true and only One;It’s well agreed and certain true,  He gave his only Son.Lord hear our penetential Cry:  Salvation from above;It is the Lord that doth ſupply,  With his Redeeming Love.Dear Jeſus by thy precious Blood,  The World Redemption have:Salvation comes now from the Lord,  He being thy captive Slave.Dear Jeſus let the Nations cry,  And all the People ſay,Salvation comes from Chriſt on high,  Haſte on Tribunal Day.We cry as Sinners to the Lord,  Salvation to obtain;It is firmly fixt his holy Word,Ye ſhall not cry in vain.Dear Jeſus unto Thee we cry,  And make our Lamentation:O let our Prayers aſcend on high;  We felt thy Salvation.

Lord turn our dark benighted Souls;  Give us a true Motion,And let the Hearts of all the World,  Make Chriſt their Salvation.Ten Thouſand Angels cry to Thee,  Yea louder than the Ocean.Thou art the Lord, we plainly ſee;  Thou art the true Salvation.Now is the Day, excepted Time;  The Day of Salvation;Increaſe your Faith, do not repine:  Awake ye every Nation.Lord unto whom now ſhall we go,  Or ſeek a ſafe Abode;Thou haſt the Word Salvation too  The only Son of God.Ho! every one that hunger hath,  Or pineth after me,Salvation be thy leading Staff,  To ſet the Sinner free.Dear Jeſus unto Thee we fly;  Depart, depart from Sin,Salvation doth at length ſupply,  The Glory of our King.Come ye Bleſſed of the Lord,  Salvation gently given;O turn your Hearts, accept the Word,  Your Souls are fit for Heaven.Dear Jeſus we now turn to Thee,  Salvation to obtain;Our Hearts and Souls do meet again,  To magnify thy Name.Come holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,  The Object of our Care;Salvation doth increaſe our Love;  Our Hearts hath felt thy fear.Now Glory be to God on High,  Salvation high and low;And thus the Soul on Chriſt rely,  To Heaven ſurely go.Come Bleſſed Jeſus, Heavenly Dove,  Accept Repentance here;Salvation give, with tender Love;  Let us with Angels ſhare.

F I N I S.

SINGLE COLUMN MODERNISED TEXT

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.

SALVATION comes by Jesus Christ alone,  The only Son of God;Redemption now to every one,  That love his holy Word.Dear Jesus we would fly to Thee,  And leave off every Sin,Thy tender Mercy well agree;  Salvation from our King.Salvation comes now from the Lord,  Our victorious King;His holy Name be well ador’d,  Salvation surely bring:Dear Jesus give thy Spirit now,  Thy Grace to every Nation,That han’t the Lord to whom we bow,  The Author of Salvation.Dear Jesus unto Thee we cry,  Give us thy Preparation;Turn not away thy tender Eye;  We seek thy true Salvation.Salvation comes from God we know,  The true and only One;It’s well agreed and certain true,  He gave his only Son.Lord hear our penetential Cry:  Salvation from above;It is the Lord that doth supply,  With his Redeeming Love.Dear Jesus by thy precious Blood,  The World Redemption have:Salvation comes now from the Lord,  He being thy captive Slave.Dear Jesus let the Nations cry,  And all the People say,Salvation comes from Christ on high,  Haste on Tribunal Day.We cry as Sinners to the Lord,  Salvation to obtain;It is firmly fixt his holy Word,Ye shall not cry in vain.Dear Jesus unto Thee we cry,  And make our Lamentation:O let our Prayers ascend on high;  We felt thy Salvation.

[Start of right-hand column text]

Lord turn our dark benighted Souls;  Give us a true Motion,And let the Hearts of all the World,  Make Christ their Salvation.Ten Thousand Angels cry to Thee,  Yea louder than the Ocean.Thou art the Lord, we plainly see;  Thou art the true Salvation.Now is the Day, excepted Time;  The Day of Salvation;Increase your Faith, do not repine:  Awake ye every Nation.Lord unto whom now shall we go,  Or seek a safe Abode;Thou hast the Word Salvation too  The only Son of God.Ho! every one that hunger hath,  Or pineth after me,Salvation be thy leading Staff,  To set the Sinner free.Dear Jesus unto Thee we fly;  Depart, depart from Sin,Salvation doth at length supply,  The Glory of our King.Come ye Blessed of the Lord,  Salvation gently given;O turn your Hearts, accept the Word,  Your Souls are fit for Heaven.Dear Jesus we now turn to Thee,  Salvation to obtain;Our Hearts and Souls do meet again,  To magnify thy Name.Come holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,  The Object of our Care;Salvation doth increase our Love;  Our Hearts hath felt thy fear.Now Glory be to God on High,  Salvation high and low;And thus the Soul on Christ rely,  To Heaven surely go.Come Blessed Jesus, Heavenly Dove,  Accept Repentance here;Salvation give, with tender Love;  Let us with Angels share.

F I N I S.

Dear Hutchinson is Dead and Gone (1770)

This poem was recently discovered in 2015 and was never given a title by Hammon. It serves as a tribute to Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643), a civil rights advocate. She had been a noted Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy that shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters.

Anne Hutchinson as depicted in ‘Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers Memorial Edition’ by Elbert Hubbard, 1916

DEAR HUTCHINSON IS DEAD AND GONE

Come ye youth of Boston townthe mournfull news youl hearthe pious youth though just come onShall Quickly Disappear

She Always did appear to beA chosen child of godhe gave her grace that set her freeShe loved his holy word

In Wisdoms ways she always wentor gave a just recordfor every sin she should repentAnd fly unto the Lord

She like a lamb or mournful doveShe silently did cryDear Jesus come ye from aboveMy soul on the rely

She did confirm the Holy wordto youth that live in sinto Leave that way and serve the Lordthat Christ may take them in

She going the way of all the Earthher nature doth decayDear Jesus send her thy reliefAnd help her now to pray

Not many days before the wordher panting heart did flyShe thus prayed unto the LordAnd met a fresh reply

Come Blessed Jesus now look downhave mercy on my souland thus forgive the ills Ive doneand Quickly send thy call

Soon after setting of the Sunthat ruler of the dayGod sent his greatfull summons downto fleet her soul away

Shes gone were all Gods children areShes gone from us tis trueShes gone to Christ were angels shareAnd bid the world adieu

this Blessed youth hath sen the daythat Nations fear to trythe Lord hath fetch her soul awayto taste Eternity

twas from the dust at the first awardYea from the Earth she cameAnd to the dust though in the LordGo Earth to Earth again

She is past the glomy vail of DeathRecievd that Blessed fallWhere angels stand for to attestAdmittance to her soul

While parent stood with drooping headhis tears ran dreeping downBlest angels did perfume the bedhe soul with glory crown

Why should ye mourn ye parent nowWhy should your heart repineWith holy sob with whom ye vowbe always of that mind

Twas god that gave our pious onetis God that takes awaytwas God that sent his summons downto taste Eternal day

the mournful Bell Begins to toleto trace her to the groundDear Jesus doth possess her soulthough we have felt the wound

Come ye mourners now and seethe place of her abodeturn dust to dust and let it beShe sleepeth in the Lord

Dear Hutchinson is dead and goneand left a memorialand as a child that is newbornshe lov’d God’s Holy soil

Now glory be unto the Lordand blessed be his nameCome follow now his holy worduntil you meet again

Compos’d by Jupiter HammonA negro belonging to Mr. Joseph Lloydof Queens Village on Long IslandAugust the 10th 1770

An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley (1778)

Hammon wrote this poem during the Revolutionary War, when his master had temporarily moved his household from Long Island to Hartford, Connecticut, to evade British forces. Phillis Wheatley, enslaved in Massachusetts, had published her first book of poetry in 1773 in London. She is recognised as the first published black female author. Hammon never met Wheatley, though he was a great admirer of her work. His dedication to Wheatley contains twenty-one rhyming quatrains, each accompanied by a related Bible verse. Hammon believed his poem would encourage Wheatley along her “Christian journey”.

A sketch of the town of Bathurst, The Gambia, 1824 — Phillis Wheatley was born in 1753 in West Africa, most likely in present-day Gambia or Senegal.

Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, attributed by some to Scipio Moorhead, 1773

AN ADDRESS TO MISS PHILLIS WHEATLEY

HARTFORD, August 4, 1778.

AN ADDRESS to Miss Phillis Wheatly, Ethiopian Poetess, in Boston, who came from Africa at eight years of age, and soon became acquainted with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Miss Wheatly; pray give me leave to express as follows:

1.O Come you pious youth! adoreThe wisdom of thy God,In bringing thee from distant shore,To learn his holy word.

Eccles. xii. 1.

2.Thou mightst been left behind,Amidst a dark abode;God’s tender mercy still combin’d,Thou hast the holy word.

Psal. cxxxvi. 1, 2, 3.

3.Fair wisdom’s ways are paths of peace;And they that walk therein,Shall reap the joys that never cease,And Christ shall be their king.

Psal. i. 1, 2, 3.Prov. iii. 7.

4.God’s tender mercy brought thee here;Tost o’er the raging main;In Christian faith thou hast a share,Worth all the gold of Spain.

Psal. ciii. 1, 2, 3, 4.

5.While thousands tossed by the sea,And others settled down,God’s tender mercy set thee free,From dangers still unknown.

Death.

6.That thou a pattern still might be,To youth of Boston town,The blessed Jesus set thee free,From every sinful wound.

2 Cor. v. 10.

7.The blessed Jesus, who came down,Unvail’d his sacred face,To cleanse the soul of every wound,And give repenting grace.

Rom. v. 21.

8.That we poor sinners may obtainThe pardon of our sin;Dear blessed Jesus now constrain,And bring us flocking in.

Psal. xxxiv. 6, 7, 8.

9.Come you, Phillis, now aspire,And seek the living God,So step by step thou mayst go higher,Till perfect in the word.

Matth. vii. 7, 8.

10.While thousands mov’d to distant shore;And others left behind,The blessed Jesus still adore,Implant this in thy mind.

Psal. lxxxix. 1.

11.Thou hast left the heathen shore,Thro’ mercy of the Lord;Among the heathen live no more,Come magnify thy God.

Psal. xxxiv. 1, 2, 3.

12.I pray the living God may be,The shepherd of thy soul;His tender mercies still are free,His mysteries to unfold.

Psal. lxxx. 1, 2, 3.

13.Thou, Phillis, when thou hunger hast,Or pantest for thy God;Jesus Christ is thy relief,Thou hast the holy word.

Psal. xlii. 1, 2, 3.

14.The bounteous mercies of the Lord,Are hid beyond the sky,And holy souls that love his word,Shall taste them when they die.

Psal. xvi. 10, 11.

15.These bounteous mercies are from God,The merits of his Son;The humble soul that loves his word,He chooses for his own.

Psal. xxxiv. 15.

16.Come, dear Phillis, be advis’d,To drink Samaria’s flood;There nothing is that shall suffice.But Christ’s redeming blood.

John iv. 13, 14.

17.While thousands muse with earthly toys;And range about the street,Dear Phillis, seek for heaven’s joys,Where we do hope to meet.

Matth. vi. 33.

18.When God shall send his summons down,And number saints together,Blest angels chant, (triumphant sound)Come live with me for ever.

Psal. cxvi. 15.

19.The humble soul shall fly to God,And leave the things of time,Start forth as ‘twere at the first word,To taste things more divine.

Mat. v. 3, 8.

20.Behold! the soul shall waft away,Whene’er we come to die,And leave its cottage made of clay,In twinkling of an eye.

Cor. iv. 51, 52, 53.

21.Now glory be to the Most High,United praises given,By all on earth, incessantly,