Jupiter Hammon Project

Did you know that one of the earliest published African American authors was born on Long Island in 1711 and that he survived three generations of enslavement? His name was Jupiter Hammon.

The Jupiter Hammon Project is a major initiative to develop a more relevant and equitable interpretation of Joseph Lloyd Manor, one of Preservation Long Island’s historic houses and a site that enslaved generations of people of African descent. While enslaved at the Manor, Jupiter Hammon (1711–before 1806) wrote powerfully about the social and moral conflicts slavery raised in the newly formed United States.

Jupiter Hammon Project Roundtables

Through a series of three virtual public roundtables conducted during the late summer and early fall of 2020, Preservation Long Island brought together renowned scholars and professionals with local residents, descendant communities, and other stakeholders to explore the legacy of slavery on Long Island and the life of Jupiter Hammon. Please visit our Vimeo channel for content produced by Preservation Long Island for the Jupiter Hammon Project.

Read the Final Report

Roundtable #1: Long Island in the Black Atlantic World

In partnership with Weeksville Heritage Center (Brooklyn)
WATCH August 15, 2020 webinar recording

Roundtable #2: The Voice of Jupiter Hammon

In partnership with Suffolk County Historical Society (Riverhead)
WATCH September 19, 2020 webinar recording

Roundtable #3: Confronting Slavery at Joseph Lloyd Manor

In partnership with Lloyd Harbor Historical Society
(Huntington)
WATCH October 24, 2020 webinar recording

Watch Malik Work’s Interpretation of “An Essay on Slavery”

Learn More

The most comprehensive volume on Hammon’s works to date, The Collected Works of Jupiter Hammon carefully reconstructs the historical, political, social, and religious contexts that shaped his essays and poems throughout the late eighteenth century.

Visit our Jupiter Hammon Project Resources webpage for a collection of primary, secondary, and interactive resources, a Jupiter Hammon Project Bibliography, and to learn more about the life of Jupiter Hammon and the legacy of enslavement on Long Island.

Help Us Tell the Full Story

Your contribution to the Jupiter Hammon Project will help us to expand interpretive programming at the 18th-century Joseph Lloyd Manor to encourage more rigorous and relevant encounters with Jupiter Hammon’s story and the legacy of enslavement on Long Island.

Support the Jupiter Hammon Project

Preservation Long Island thanks the following sponsors and advisory council members for supporting the Jupiter Hammon Project:

Jupiter Hammon Project Advisory Council:

Charleen Francis
Dr. David Byer-Tyre
Denice Evans-Sheppard
Edward Dugger

Dr. Georgette Grier-Key
Irene Moore
Joan McGee
Julia Keiser

Melisa Chioma Emeghebo Rousseau
Zenzelé Cooper

Jupiter Hammon Project Sponsors:

DeLaCour Family Foundation

Lloyd Harbor Historical Society

Comment on Facebook

Christopher La Bella

York Hall is good step in the right direction! Kudos to PLI for your Endangered Historic Places program and Action Alerts bringing public attention to our Long Island heritage! In the township of Smithtown, more historic places deserve to be listed on the NR. For a quarter-century, from 1993 to 2018, not one building was nominated and listed NR in Smithtown township until the 2019 Nomination I wrote voluntarily, as a resident, for the Frederick and Annie Wagner Residence (1912, Gustav Stickley) and St. Patrick’s Church (Byzantine Catholic Church of the Resurrection, 1929, McGill & Hamlin), followed by the 2020 Nomination I prepared with SHPO for the Hauppauge United Methodist Church (1806, oldest in the township) and Cemetery, underrepresented churches and the first of their faiths in the township to be listed NR. Other places and even civic sculpture (the Smithtown Bull, Head of the River Park) I’ve researched resulting in NRE (Eligible) status, are waiting (years) for their owners (including the Town itself) to say ‘yes’ and be listed on the NR. There’s so much more to do to bring Historic Preservation in this township outside the fence line of the Historical Society.

Did you know that one of the earliest published African American authors was born on Long Island in 1711 and that he survived three generations of enslavement? His name was Jupiter Hammon.