42 



THE NEGRO BARD. 



gro bahlcr-dasli, but it is the production of a genuine African struggling 

 manfully to bear away the palm from his more favored competitors. It 

 contains the fugitive eflusions of a lowly, unlettered, unassuming slave; 

 one whose duty it was to follow the plough from "morn till dewy eve," 

 and who had leisure only during the darkness of night, "when no work 

 can be done," to woo his humble, rustic Muse. 



Northampton county, N. C, has the undisputed honor of giving 

 birth to the poet, whence his master removed to Chatham, where, for 

 ten years, George was "nothing but a poor co\>-boy." About this time 

 he grew exceedingly desirous of learning to read, which he accom- 

 plished by the slight aid afforded him by school children. He seized 

 upon every leisure moment to pursue his studies, by night and on Sun- 

 days, until, in his own words, "by close application to my books at 

 night, my visage became considerably emaciated by extreme perspira- 

 tion, having no lucubratory apparatus, no candle, no lamp, nor even 

 light-wood." George is evidently partial to what Horace terms "verba 

 sesquipedalia," and all his sentences, in prose especially, are marked by 

 having "their linked sweetness long drawn out." Whether this wordi- 

 ness is a characteristic of his race, or whether he copied the vice from 

 his American masters, we will not stop to enquire. But the reader will 

 1)0 more interested in his own narrative: ''In 1815, he (his master) 

 moved into Chatham where my opportunities became a little expanded. 

 Having got into the way of carrying fiuit to the college at Cliapcl Hill, 

 on the Sabbath, the collegians, who for their diversion were fond of 

 pranking with the country servants who resorted there for the same pur- 

 pose that I did, began also to jn-ank with me. But some how or other 

 they discovered a spark of genius in me, either by discourse or other- 

 wise, which excited their curiosity, and they eagerly insisted on me to 

 spoul as they called it. This inspired in me a kind of enthusiastic pride. 

 I would stand forth and address myself extempore before them as an 

 orator of inspired promptitude. But I soon found it an object of aver- 

 sion, and considered myself nothing but a public ignoramus. Hence I 

 a])andoned my foolish harangues and began to speak of poetry, which 

 lifted tliem still higher on the wing of astonishment ;. all eyes were on 

 me and all ears were open. I\Iany were at first incredulous, but the ex- 

 periment of acrostics established it as an incontestable fact. Hence my 

 fame soon circulated like a stream through college. Many of these 

 acrostics I composed at the handle of the plough and retained them in 

 my head, being unable to wiite, until an opportunity offered, when I 

 dictated, whilst one of the gentlemen would serve as my amanuensis. 

 I have composed love pieces in verse for courtiers from all parts of ihe 



