Hero Tribute to Jupiter Hammon & Phillis Wheatley

Celebrating Black History Month Jupiter Hammon (October 17, 1711 – before 1806) was a Black poet who became the first African-American published writer in America when a poem appeared in print in 1760. He was a slave his entire life, and the date of his death is not known. He was living in 1790 at the age of 79, and had definitely died by 1806. Hammon was a devout Christian, and is considered one of the founders of African American literature. Phillis Wheatley (1753 – December 5, 1784) was the first published first African-American Woman whose writings were published. Born in Gambia, Senegal, she was enslaved at age seven. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write, and helped encourage her poetry.