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and a slave, the printers provide readers with a brief moral sketch of him, avowing that he “has been remarkable for his fidelity and abstinence from those vices, which he warns his brethren against.” It is quite likely that the printers were mindful of Puritan doctrine when offering statements regarding Hammon’s moral character, for the Puritans feared that the written word could be a potential source of moral corruption if either the author or the message were morally tainted. The printers’ pledge about Hammon’s morality also speaks indirectly to Northern fears of slave rebellion and contagion. If the printers were to disseminate a text by an amoral or immoral person to a body of African slaves, they could potentially be responsible for inciting rebellion or insurrection. If, however, as the printers testify, Hammon is free of the vices he addresses in writing to his fellow slaves, then the possibility of his mounting an insurrection is negligible. Hammon likens his position of speaking to “my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” to that of the apostle Paul, who writes in Romans to his fellow Jews who have not converted to Christianity. By making this comparison, Hammon foregrounds his biblical knowledge and thus solidifies the position of authority from which he speaks. As Paul, who was a Jew who preached among fellow Jews to convert them to Christianity, Hammon imagines himself to be a prophet speaking to his fellow Negroes, who may or may not be Christians. Additionally, Hammon’s specific use of Paul, as the critic Sondra O’Neale views it, serves a subtler, but nonetheless crucial, purpose. The parallel with Paul allowed Hammon indirectly to reference the practice of segregation of black parishioners in colonial churches just as Paul “vehemently disagreed with this practice and the prejudice against Gentiles that it perpetuated” in the book of Galatians (O’Neale 213). By opening with a biblical reference, and imploring his fellow slaves to read and believe the Bible, Hammon was not only looking to their spiritual well-being, but also providing them with what O’Neale refers to as a “secret code” to his own writ-
ing (213). “Hammon encouraged his slave audience to master reading and then to apply this skill to Scripture for two reasons: fi rst, they could hardly understand his coded messages without some knowledge of biblical symbolism, of narrative, and of ethics, and of God’s special concern for all pariahs; and second, they could not comprehend the pretentiousness of colonists who professed Christianity while continuing the slave system” (O’Neale 215). O’Neale offers several biblical references that Hammon makes but “could not publicly explore” in his “Address” such as his references to God’s preference of the poor (slaves) to the rich (slave owners), his fi nal judgment against slave owners, and a direct challenge to the Anglican-Calvinist belief in the absolute will of God. Hammon cites a passage from the second book of James in the New Testament in which God chooses the poor for salvation. This passage directly contradicts Puritan belief in predestination for the elect who envision themselves as the only ones deemed worthy of salvation; if God has also selected the poor for salvation, then the Puritans are not the only elect ones. Further, as O’Neale states, readers familiar with James would naturally think of the fi rst book of this particular Gospel, in which James writes that “the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower,” and recognize in this indirect reference an indictment of wealthy slave owners (James 1:10). Another example of how Hammon relies upon the Bible as a “covert code” for communicating with his fellow slaves involves his use of Ephesians in his imaginings of slavery. In other portions of this gospel, Paul advised masters to treat their slaves as brothers, and then, in his epistle to Philemon, Paul pointedly requests that the master free his brother (former slave), who is now his equal. Hammon offers his readers specific advice that appears to contemporary readers and critics to advocate complacency in enslavement, and for this reason, O’Neale and others believe that “this misinterpretation has done much to damage Hammon’s integrity and to prevent his veneration as the fi rst Black writer of America” (228). When