As I was reading Jupiter Hammon’s “An Address to the Negroes in the State of New York,” I began to feel as if I was reading work by Booker T.  Washington. Hammon’s ideas of slaves obeying their masters are critically what Washington stood for. Washington urged slaves to accept discrimination and focus on improving their education rather than their political status. Hammon urged slaves to be grateful for the situation they were in, making the accusation that it was God’s will. How are men’s vacuous, intolerant ways doings of God? I understand the concept of what Hammon was trying to illustrate, but the manner in which it was proclaimed was an offense to God; the same goes for Washington. The idea that slaves obeying the masters to eventually make them feel wrong is a long stretch that has no guarantee of occurring. The fault with the demeanor of both Washington and Hammon is that it empowered the white population to continue mistreating enslaved individuals and did not take the feelings of slaves into consideration.  I personally was disgusted and appalled by the writing of Jupiter Hammon, as I was when I first learned about Booker T. Washington.