The Black Bard of North Carolina: George Moses Horton and His Poetry

by Joan R. Sherman (Editor)

Overview

For his humanistic religious verse, his poignant and deeply personal antislavery poems, and, above all, his lifelong enthusiasm for liberty, nature, and the art of poetry, George Moses Horton merits a place of distinction among nineteenth-century African American poets. Enslaved from birth until the close of the Civil War, the self-taught Horton was the first American slave to protest his bondage in published verse and the first black man to publish a book in the South. As a man and as a poet, his achievements were extraordinary.

In this volume, Joan Sherman collects sixty-two of Horton's poems. Her comprehensive introduction--combining biography, history, cultural commentary, and critical insight--presents a compelling and detailed picture of this remarkable man's life and art.

George Moses Horton (ca. 1797-1883) was born in Northampton County, North Carolina. A slave for sixty-eight years, Horton spent much of his life on a farm near Chapel Hill, and in time he fostered a deep connection with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The author of three books of poetry, Horton was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in May of 1996.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807864463
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/09/2000
Series:	Chapel Hill Books
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	168
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Joan R. Sherman is professor emerita of English at Rutgers University. She is author and editor of several books on nineteenth-century African American poets.

Editorial Reviews

Sherman (African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, LJ 10/92) has culled 62 of the poems of George Moses Horton (ca. 1797-1883) from his three volumes: The Hope of Liberty (1829), the Poetical Works (1845), and Naked Genius (1865). She provides an in-depth introduction and biographical information that puts Horton in context, and she occasionally corrects errors of previous critics. Sherman also gives an insightful if brief analysis of his poetry. She particularly focuses on his connection with the University of North Carolina, where the self-educated Horton was campus poet for years. Because he was enslaved for 68 years, one of Horton's most powerful and poignant subjects is the desire for liberty, which was often cruelly snatched from him. Sherman's edition will aid in securing Horton's place as a significant 19th-century American poet. Recommended for larger poetry collections.Louis J. Parascandola, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn

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