Stanley A. Ransom Jr. has written and published Americas First Black Poet; Jupiter Hammon of Long Island. Ransom grew up in Winsted and is a graduate of The Gilbert School.

Stanley A. Ransom Jr. has written and published Americas First Black Poet; Jupiter Hammon of Long Island. Ransom grew up in Winsted and is a graduate of The Gilbert School.

Photo: Stanley A. Ransom Jr. / Contributed Photo

Stanley A. Ransom Jr. has written and published Americas First Black Poet; Jupiter Hammon of Long Island. Ransom grew up in Winsted and is a graduate of The Gilbert School.

Stanley A. Ransom Jr. has written and published Americas First Black Poet; Jupiter Hammon of Long Island. Ransom grew up in Winsted and is a graduate of The Gilbert School.

Winsted native writes book on Black poet Jupiter Hammon

With the publication of the 88-line broadside poem An Evening Thought in 1760, Jupiter Hammon became the first published African-American contributor to American poetry.

The book, Americas First Black Poet; Jupiter Hammon of Long Island, written by Stanley A. Ransom Jr., is a reflection of the authors fascination with the history of Long Island and its past, including the lives of slaves who were brought to that part of New York in the 1700s.

Ransom, 92, now retired, has made a mission of educating people everywhere of the great contributions of Black poets to society, and annually organizes Black Poetry Day in Plattsburgh, N.Y., where he has lived for many years.

He is past president of the Long Island Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and is a descendant of Solomon Stoddard, a 17th-century minister quoted by Jupiter Hammon. Ransom first became interested in Hammon through the work of author Oscar Wegelin. In 1970, he proposed that Oct. 17, Jupiter Hammons birthday in 1711, be celebrated as Black Poetry Day, to recognize the contributions of African-American poets to American life and culture and to honor Jupiter Hammon, the first Black man in America to publish his own verse, according to the book.

Ransom was born in Winsted in 1928, and moved to West Hartland in 1935, to be closer to his fathers family. His father, Stanley Ransom Sr., worked as sales manager for the Gilbert Clock Co.; his mother, Charlotte Grace Adele Sheldon, was the soloist at the Winsted Methodist Church. The family resided on Walnut Street, and Ransom attended the Greenwood School.

After graduating from high school, Ransom worked for three years for the Connecticut Parks and Forest Commission, where he planted trees and fought forest fires. He graduated from Yale University in 1951 and from Columbia University Graduate Library Service School in 1953, then worked for the New York Public Library on 42nd Street for five years.

I realized Id gone as far as I could go there, and I took a job at the Huntingon, Long Island, public library out on the north shore, Ransom said. I learned a lot about being a librarian there from the director, and when he left, I became the director.

Ransom fed his interest in local history by exploring Huntington, and heard about Jupiter Hammon. His name popped up, Ransom said. A lot of people had heard of him; he was a neighbor, and lived in the area. Theres a peninsula thats now a state park, but in 1711, that whole area was the manor of a place called Queens Village, where members of the British hierarchy settled.

There, Henry Lloyd was a 24-year-old from Boston who came to what was known as Lloyds Neck, which was owned by his wife, he said. She received it from a man she was formerly engaged to, and he willed the land to her; when he died, she received the whole neck. When she married Henry Lloyd, it became theirs.

The Lloyds had eight slaves that they brought from Boston, who were from Barbados. In the early 1600s, the whole of Barbados was dedicated to developing sugar on plantations. (On Long Island at that time) there were 56,000 slaves on a plantation who were working on sugar, cutting the cane and pressing it.

Jupiter Hammon was among those slaves. The Lloyds settled on what is now known as Shelter Island, N.Y., bringing eight slaves, including Hammon, to their home. They owned all of Shelter Island, Ransom said. I went there when I was library director, and at that time the house was owned by a Mr. Fisk.

Finding out more about Jupiter Hammon wasnt easy.

We dont know what he looked like, or anything about him, Ransom said. I hunted everywhere, and there were no diaries, no newspapers that covered the time that he died, in 1805. I asked if he was buried in the African-American cemetery in Huntington, but he wasnt. Its probable that he was placed in the African-American burial ground, thats full of unmarked graves.

Jupiter Hammon wasnt the first Black poet, and I learned he was the first to publish his own verse, Ransom explained. Apparently the first Black poem was written by a woman named Lucy Terry, in a little town in Massachusetts, about an attack by Native Americans that killed settlers in a place called Bars Field, somewhere near Great Barrington.

Lucy wrote a long poem about it, and the poem wasnt printed until 1866, I think, Ransom said. But Jupiter, and Phyllis Wheatley, were the first Black persons to publish their own poems Jupiter in 1760, and Phyllis about 10 years later. She got a lot of publicity, but Jupiter was somewhat of a mystery. But he was the first Black poet to publish his own verse.

Eventually, Ransom learned about that the Lloyd Harbor Historical Society building, a 1711 saltbox house near Huntington, was the closest to a resting place for Jupiter Hammon.

Its become kind of a shrine for him, he said. Groups of people who are interested in African-American history have put decorations on the house, and awarded plaques to the house. So that seems to be a substitute for a cemetery marker.

A natural intelligence and a deep religious fervor led Hammon to publish his poetry and prose, and his Address to the Negroes of the State of New York, which first appeared in 1787, was later reprinted and distributed by the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, according to Ransoms book. Some of Hammons most productive years were spent in Hartford during the American Revolution, he said. With newly found genealogical information on Jupiter, this present volume with newfound poems has become the most complete and authoritative work on this early American black poet, according to the books publisher, Outskirts Press.

Hammons poetry reveals his joyous intoxication with religion, and in this vein he precedes the composers of those Black spirituals which are today an integral part of American culture, Ransom wrote. This collection of his poems and writings now includes two newly discovered poems found in New York Historical Society Library and in the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University. Ransom noted that Hammon used several codes and indirect ways to let his fellow slaves know his real feelings about slavery. He used his Biblical knowledge as a cover.

Ransom has observed Black Poetry Day at Plattsburgh since 1970. Id like to see a national observance of Black Poetry Day, having people read the poems of Black poets, he said. Up here in Plattsburgh, theyve had nationally known Black poets come to Plattsburgh University. Im trying to get all the states to do it.

On Oct. 17, its all about Jupiter Hammon and Black Poetry Day, he said. I have a poetry day committee, and we feel that it is important to have some ways to promote racial harmony. This book, I think, is timely. Its a way to accept and appreciate Black poetry as a major expression of the Black experience. Im trying to enable the use of Black poems to celebrate person of color.

Ransom said he doesnt benefit personally from the celebration. But it seems to me that with all the terrible problems weve experienced lately, that this might help, he said. There are so many Black poets who have written such good poems for people to read. They write about life and family, and their experiences. ... Their poems should be read for the benefit of hearing what they have to say.

Since founding the annual event, Ransom has had readers including former Connecticut Poet Laureate Marilyn Nelson, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy Smith; Gwendolyn Brooks; and Derek Wolcott, who in 1992 was the days reader a week after winning a Nobel Prize. These poets have a lot to say, Ransom said. And for schoolchildren and college kids poetry is still a good way of expressing your feelings. Thats my aim to get people to experience and appreciate poetry.

Ransom writes poetry, too, but is more inclined to short story writing, and has become a professional storyteller and a member of the National Storytellers Institute, sharing his skills with libraries, childrens programs and schools. Hes also a singer and musician, and goes by the name Connecticut Peddler.

I also play hammer dulcimer, guitar, mandolin, auto harp and ukulele, he said. With my wife, Christina, we have volunteered every morning at our hospitals skilled nursing facility. We go up and talk to the patients, and sing to them. But with COVID-19, there are no more volunteers allowed at the hospital.

In September, Ransom is performing four songs during a yearly event on the Battle of Plattsburgh, honoring the date in 1814 with the U.S. Navy defeated an army of British soldiers trying to invade the area. Ransom has recorded 10 CDs of historic music. He has also written two musical compositions, the Jupiter Hammons Jig and the Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley, based on Jupiter Hammons second poem, a four-part arrangement for Gospel Choir by Shirley Baird, Canadian musician and educator.

I like to do creative things, he said.

Ransom is an Army veteran of WWII. He and his wife, Christina, have four children, including a step-daughter, and eight grandchildren.

For more information or to contact the author, visit http://www.outskirtspress.com/JupiterHammon. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Winsted native writes book on Black poet Jupiter Hammon - Torrington Register Citizen