He lived the last 18 years of his life as a free man. When George Moses Horton was a man in his 60s, the Union victory in the Civil War ended slavery. People all over the country who were working to end slavery were inspired by his words. He also wrote about the injustices of slavery, becoming the first African American slave poet to do so. George wrote poems of love, friendship, humor, happiness, and grief. George saw his name on the covers, and knew he had become an author. His friends helped him publish his work in newspapers and, finally, in real books. This was a very rare experience for an enslaved person at the time. He devoured the books his friends gave him: Shakespeare, Lord Byron, the ancient poet Homer.ĭespite remaining his master’s property, George was able to earn his own money, dress well, and make friends among educated people. The wife of one of the professors befriended George and taught him to write down his verses. So much so, that he was soon composing love poems that he sold for 25 cents each to the young students to give to their sweethearts. But many were won over by his gracious manners and his gift for words. Some of the white students made fun of George. He worked in the fields on his new master’s property, but on Sundays, he walked eight miles to Chapel Hill, to sell fruit and vegetables to the students and faculty at the University of North Carolina. George was separated from his family when he was 17 and given to his master’s son. They helped him become a confident young man who knew he had something important to say. He said his poems to himself as he worked from morning to night tending cattle. He hadn’t yet learned to write, so he carefully memorized the poems he composed. Whenever he could, he read from the Bible, from newspapers, and even advertisements. His mother had given him her own precious hymnal, filled with beautiful and inspiring songs. Late at night, during the few hours allowed to him for sleeping, he would stay up late, his eyes burned by the smoke from the firelight, and teach himself to read. After he had learned the alphabet only by listening to the other children, he found a worn-out old spelling book. George took every opportunity he got to study by himself.

George’s mother would have loved to have taught her son to read, but she herself had never been allowed to learn. When he was only seven or eight years old and already carrying heavy loads on his master’s property, he would try to stop and listen whenever he heard the white children learning their ABC’s. They certainly did not believe that a young African American slave could become a poet who wrote beautiful lines that moved people’s hearts.īut that is exactly what George Moses Horton did. Slaves could be sold or traded away, like we today would sell or trade a car or a toy or a computer game.įew white people in those days believed that an African American slave was capable of learning to read and write well. In those days, slaves were considered the property of whomever owned them. But because he was a slave in North Carolina in the early 1800s, no one cared if he learned to read or write. George Moses Horton loved words, ever since he was a little boy.

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