144 Inventing Americas: 1800–1865And they were Americans who, up until then, had been excluded from the American
dream. “Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the first of our injured race were
brought to the shores of America,” Garnet exclaimed. But, unlike other immigrants,
“they came not with glad spirits to select their homes in the New World”; “they came
not with their own consent, to find an unmolested enjoyment of the blessings of this
fruitful soil”; “neither did they come flying upon the wings of Liberty, to a land of
freedom.” On the contrary, “they came with broken hearts, from their beloved native
land, and were doomed to unrequited toil and deep degradation.” Now it was time
to seize what was their right: what others, “men calling themselves Christians,” had
gained coming to the shores of America. Garnet’s peculiarly effective tactic here was
to turn the white dream of American promise against white America, by claiming
that it could and should be a black dream as well – and one to be realized, if necessary,
by “resistance, resistance! resistance!” When Garnet gave his speech in 1843, it was
denounced by Frederick Douglass, who at that time was an advocate of nonviolent
“moral suasion.” And it fell short, if only by one vote, of being approved as an official
resolution of the Convention. However, by the 1850s, Douglass had moved toward
agreement with Garnet that freedom was to be seized by any means necessary. By
1863, both men were involved in raising troops for the Union army. Even before
that, in 1847, the National Negro Convention endorsed Garnet’s militant stand.
These were measures of how far, and how quickly, things changed.
Both Walker and Garnet addressed a black audience. On the whole, the authors of
the slave narratives addressed a white one; and so did the poet, George Moses Horton
(1797?–1883?). That was one reason why his comments on slavery tended to be
more sporadic and muted, perhaps. Another, far more crucial, is that he lived for
most of his life, and for all of his significant career as a poet, as a slave in the South.
Born in North Carolina, Horton published his first volume of poetry, The Hope of
Liberty, in 1829. It was published in North Carolina with white support and financial
aid; it was the first book of poetry by an African-American for more than half a
century, and the first book of any kind authored by a black Southerner. Most of the
21 poems in the volume are conventional variations on the themes of love, death,
and religion. But three tentatively negotiate the issue of slavery, most notably one
entitled “On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet’s
Freedom.” In this poem, Horton scarcely disguises the confession that he had been
“on the dusky verge of despair” until the chance “to break the slavish bar” had been
opened up to him. The conventions of servile gratitude for a gracious white
“intention” – which, as it happened, was never fulfilled – enables the poet to talk in
relatively frank terms about the “dismal path” of his life as a slave. Horton was never
freed before the Civil War, but his master did allow him to hire his time as a
professional poet, waiter, and handyman, and to publish his work in such abolitionist
periodicals as The Liberator and The North Star. Then, in 1845, Horton published his
second volume, The Poetical Works of George Horton, The Colored Bard of North
Carolina. Again, the poet did not risk offending his white patrons and public by
openly attacking slavery. But, again, he did allow himself to comment on the
sometimes bitter consequences of being a slave.GGray_c02.indd 144ray_c 02 .indd 144 8 8/1/2011 7:54:40 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 40 AM