SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.
GEORGE MOSES HORTON was born of slave parents in Northampton
County, North Carolina, on the Roanoke river, the property of Wm. Horton, Sen.
To account for his exact age is beyond the reach of the compiler, as slaves seldom
know their ages; but from the most reliable information which he has been able
to gain from those who have been acquainted with the author from childhood up
to the present time, he was probably born about the year 1794. In the course of
five or six years after his birth, from the sterility of his land, his old master
moved with his family into Chatham County, a more fertile and fresh part of the
country recently settled, and whose waters were far more healthy and agreeable.
Here, as a field hand on his master's plantation he spent his days, till 1815, at
which time his master died, leaving him the property of his oldest son, James.
It was about this time he commenced composing poetry, and being without a
knowledge of the use of letters, he dictated while others reduced his poems to
writing. In this way he produced many beautiful poems and hymns which were
eagerly sought for, and not a few of them were published extensively in different
papers throughout the State. He soon, however, formed the resolve to learn to
read and write, and how far he succeeded will hereafter be seen. In 1832 his
second master died, and he was put up at auction, and purchased, unfortunately
for the author, by his late master's son, “Hall,” who was a hard master, and
denied him of every advantage which he might improve for the edification of his
mind. But notwithstanding the accumulated difficulties which he had to surmount,
he determined to study letters. Each Sabbath he would retire to some
secluded spot and spend the day in looking over such old pieces of books as he
could collect without exciting too strongly the suspicion of his master, who was
ever ready and willing to chastise him for any attempt at learning. In the year
1841, he hired his time at twenty-five cents per day, and employed himself as a
servant at the State University, located at Chapel Hill. Here, through the kindness
of many of the students, he became a tolerable good reader and a passable
writer, which gave him a far better chance to employ the wonderful powers he
possessed. To the very distinguished Mrs. Hentz of Boston, the author owes
much, for the correction of many poetical errors. Being a poetess herself, and a
lover of genius, she discovered his uncultivated talent, and was moved by pity to
uncover to him the beauties of correctness, together with the true object to which
he aspired. This celebrated lady did not remain long at Chapel Hill, in 1843 she
returned to her home in Massachusetts. The loss of a friend so kind and good was
to Mr. Horton a severe blow; but, however much he felt the loss of her instructions,
he continued writing, and in 1845 produced his first book, consisting of a
series of miscellaneous poems, and published by Dennis Heart, Esq, Editor of
the Hillsboro' Recorder. By this time the fame of the colored bard went with
lightning speed wherever the prejudice of the people would permit his poems to
go. Many of his books were sold in different parts of the State, and but for the
fact of his being a slave, and the influence which a few of the leading men brought
to bear against him, that precious gem of African genius would have found a
ready place in the hands of one million of the people of the North. 'Tis true he
had his friends and admirers, but where the laws of a State binds the African
with fetters, a few private individuals can render him but little service. In 1832,
Governor Owen, Doctor Caldwell and Doctor Henderson made propositions to his
master for his purchase for the purpose of sending him to Liberia, but Mr. Horton
saw a fortune in dat niggah, and wouldn't sell, unless he could get enough to buy
about four good field hands. Such an exorbitant price these gentlemen were unwilling
to pay, and abandoned their project. Having no other hopes of freedom,
our author was doomed to remain in slavery—to toil without rest, under the unrelenting
eye of his master, till the occupation of Raleigh by our troops, when he
escaped to our lines for protection, and is now with the writer hard at work both
night and day eomposing poems for his book, and writing acrostics for the boys
on their sweethearts' names, in which he takes great delight.
THE COMPILER.
