Take a look at Jupiter Hammon's An Address to the Negroes of New York (1797). Hammon was a slave on Long Island, and America's first black poet. A link to a digital version of the text can be found at the "Making of New York" site (http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/nycrl/history.htm). Biographical information about Hammon and links to other sites dealing with African Americans in New York can be found on the "People" page at the same site.