Prof.(Dr.) Asghar Ali Ansari

 School of Languages,

Literature & Society

Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India

Commonly known as a “slave poet”, George Moses Horton was an African-American poet from North Carolina. Born as a slave in 1798 on William Horton’s plantation, George Moses was the first African-American published author in the United States. He published a book of poetry with the help of Caroline Lee Whitening Hentz, who taught him to write and to improve his poetry, and thus became the first African slave poet in America. Due to the influential endeavour of Hentz, Horton’s first two poems were published in the local newspapers, Lancaster Gazette and Gazette. She also wrote an introductory note for his poems.

Illiterate but great poet:

Although he was an illiterate person and did not know how to read and write, he started composing poetry in his head and selling it at a weekly market where a lot of students from a local university became regular buyers of his poems. He learned reading and writing in his later period of life. Horton was first published in a local newspaper and later on his first collection of poetry, “The Hope of Liberty” was published in 1892 in which he publicly protested his slavery but in a mild tone. He was once labeled with destitution due to his cultural background went on to register his name in history and became a noted figure in MA in English Literature.

Struggle to become free from slavery:

Horton wanted to earn a lot of money to buy his freedom in order to have time to write poetry. But unfortunately, he could not succeed in his plan. Later on with a meager income from his poems he purchased his time from his owner and became a full-time poet, handyman, and servant at the university. He continued to buy his time for thirty years and in 1845 he published his second collection of poetry, “The Poetical Works”. He wrote his third collection, “Naked Genius” during his travels throughout North Carolina as a cavalry volunteer. He spent 68 years of his life as a slave and finally settled in Philadelphia where he lived seventeen years as a free man and died in 1883.

Characteristic of His Poetry:

• Horton’s poetry is lyrical in nature.
• His poetry is full of rhythm and rhyme and explores the understanding of human nature.
• Due to this human nature and human emotion, Horton’s poetry has become the poetry of universal appeal and is studied under the heading of World literature poetry.
• In his poetry, Horton deals with the theme of faith in God, and human love and describes the agony and suffering of slavery.
• Moreover, in his poetry, Horton describes and celebrates the rural beauty of Chatham County where he spent much of his life.
• He loved this place very much and was fascinated by the charming rural beauty of its locality which he has described in his poetry in detail.

His Poetic Style:

• Horton uses traditional vocabulary and style in his poetry.
• His poetic style was typical of contemporary European poetry and was similar to poems written by contemporaries, likely a reflection of his reading and his work for commission. Therefore, Horton has established itself as a preferable topic for Masters in English Literature.
• He wrote both sonnets and ballads.
• His early works focused on the life in slavery.
• Most of his poems deal with rural life and slavery.
• He wrote love lyrics for students but they are less appealing than the rural poems and those on slavery.
• His poetic protests of his status are the first ever written by a slave in America.
• In his poems, we find a sense of hopefulness about the freedom of slavery.
• But because of the fears of punishment, he deals the theme of slavery in a subtle manner in his poems.

A celebrated Poet:

Horton became a popular and famous literary figure after his death due to his literary contribution to English literature. Marking his territory in English Literature, Horton became a crucial figure in the subject that is skillfully taught at Jaipur National University. A lot of biographies were written about Horton in recognition of his talent as a poet. He was regarded as one of the notable North Carolina poets and a number of papers were written on him.

If he had not spent his life in misery and had found proper opportunity, Horton would have become the most talented poet of his time but his almost lifelong slavery created hindrances in the way to his growth as a great poet of the time but he was not disheartened and kept pursuing the freedom from slavery.

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