http://www.ibiblio.org/ uncpress/horton/

The poetry of George Moses Horton, "the Colored Bard of North Carolina," was the first to be published by a male slave in the South. Born the property of farmer William Horton of North Carolina , as a young man Horton taught himself to read using a discarded spelling book, a Bible, and a copy of the Methodist hymnal. Particularly drawn to poetry, he composed psalm-like verses in his head (he did not learn to write until well into his adulthood). When sent on a trip to Chapel Hill to sell produce, Horton's unusually sophisticated vocabulary caught the attention of the university students. Soon he was composing and selling poems to students to send to their sweethearts, even creating acrostics based on the young lady's name (for which he would charge extra). Caroline Lee Hentz, a professor's wife, transcribed and arranged for the publication of his first collection, The Hope of Liberty: Two other volumes followed, the proceeds from which he hoped to use to purchase his freedom. Sadly, he was never able to sell enough copies.

Horton's work is noteworthy for two reasons: First, he was originally an orator, reciting the verses he wrote for the students, which they would then transcribe. He would compose and memorize poems that described many of the important events of his community. Horton had a true talent for what in the griot oral tradition would be called "praise-singing," and he composed several poems in honor of well-known figures of the day, such as "Death of Gen. Jackson – An Eulogy":

Second, increasingly frustrated by his inability to buy his freedom and truly practice his craft, Horton demonstrated the functional use of poetry by "making the conflict between the condition of his birth and the aspiration of his life a salient and individualizing theme of his writing." In "On Liberty and Slavery," Horton uses his poetry to comment on the status quo, boldly voicing the slave's complaint:

Here, and in many of his poems, Horton uses his "Now-time," his Sasa, to reflect upon the past. The themes of the poetry itself would also influence and shape the present. Other early African American "orator" poets include Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, James M. Whitfield, and Albery A. Whitman. Their use of poetry for individual expressivity, social commentary, and activism not only recalls the many uses of the spirituals as employed by the early African slaves, but also signifies the traditions of the griot as historian and speaker for community values.