Slave honored as historic North Carolina poet

Web posted May 27, 1997

Associated Press

GREENSBORO (AP) - Little is known of George Moses Horton's later years - when he died or how he survived following the Civil War.

In the years before the war, though, Horton was well known among students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. That's because Horton would compose love poems for the students.

It was a pasttime that earned him money and recognition, leading to the publication of his books of poems, something unheard of for a slave in the early 19th century.

Last January, Marjorie Hudson decided that was enough reason to make Horton Chatham County's official poet. After she gathered enough signatures on a petition, the Board of Commissioners agreed, naming Horton the Historic Poet Laureate of the county last month.

Hudson, a poet and writer, has lived for 13 years near the farm where Horton worked. But it wasn't until five years ago that she discovered Horton for herself.

Thumbing through the ``North Carolina Literary Review,'' she noticed a bibliography of slave poets. She read about Horton, the only slave to publish books of his own poetry while still a slave.

``It told about how he would walk from the farm up to Chapel Hill every week with a cart full of vegetables to sell,'' she said. ``He would make up poems and sell them to students at the university.''

Horton started taking his eight-mile walks to UNC-Chapel Hill as a teenager. He had already taught himself to read with a New Testament, his mother's Wesley hymnal and bits of poetry that he would find.

He became a popular figure with students, who paid him between 25 cents and 75 cents to come up with love poems. Horton made about $3 to $4 every week, at a time when meat cost 5 cents a pound and eggs were 10 cents a dozen.

``It's no surprise that his master let him continue to make the trip every week,'' Hudson said. ``He was probably making a tidy profit from this, too.''

Horton had been walking to Chapel Hill for about 10 years when he became acquainted with Caroline Lee Hentz, the wife of a professor and herself a writer and poet. She was impressed with his poetry. Hentz began writing it down as Horton dictated and sent it to newspapers in the state and in the North with resounding effects.

After Horton's work appeared in Raleigh's newspaper, a noted proponent of colonizing black people back to Africa helped Horton publish his first book, ``Hope of Liberty.''

With his second, more biographical book, ``The Poetical Works,'' published in 1845, Horton intended to use the profits to buy his freedom. But it was never enough. He found no help from his admirers on the Chapel Hill campus, including college president David Swain. In a letter dated 1852, Horton asked Swain to buy him, to save him the eight-mile walk from Chatham County.

Horton wrote: ``Sir, my object for this is my distant walk to attend to my business, which chiefly lies on the Hill. The price is $250, which I cannot but think I am worth.''

Swain apparently never replied, and Horton stayed a slave until the end of the Civil War.

Hudson's interest in Horton appears to be shared by a growing number of people.

The George Moses Horton Society for the Study of African American Poetry was founded last spring and has more than 100 members nationally, said Trudier Harris, chairwoman of the society and a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. A book written and edited by Joan R. Sherman, ``The Black Bard of North Carolina: George Moses Horton and His Poetry'' was published by the University of North Carolina Press this spring. In Chatham County, people are considering a campaign to have a statue honoring him erected at the courthouse.

Geraldine DeGraffenreidt, chairwoman of the newly formed Black Historical Society of Chatham County, said Horton is an example of a prominent black figure in North Carolina who had been overlooked by many historians.

``So many blacks have done things here and not been given credit,'' said DeGraffenreidt. ``I want the kids in Chatham County to know that we don't have to look far away. We have good black history here.''