In 1761, Jupiter Hammon's poem An Evening Thought was published as a broadside in New York. Hammon was enslaved on Long Island, and the publication is generally recognised as the first known poem published by an African American writer. The event is extraordinary because it emerged from within slavery's restrictions on literacy and authorship.

Hammon's publication marked the beginning of African American poetry in print. His religious language may appear conventional, but it opened a path for Black writers to use Christian, classical, and political forms to speak from inside systems designed to silence them.