George Moses Horton
A Slave’s Reflections the Eve Before His Sale
O, comrades! to-morrow we try,
The fate of an exit unknowing—
Tears trickled from every eye—
’Tis going, ’tis going, ’tis going!
Who shall the dark problem then solve,
An evening of gladness or sorrow,
Thick clouds of emotion evolve,
The sun which awaits us to-morrow,
O! to-morrow! to-morrow!
Thick clouds of emotion evolve,
The sun which awaits us to-morrow.
Soon either with smiles or with tears,
Will the end of our course be completed.
The progress of long fleeting years,
Triumphant or sadly regretted.
In whom shall the vassal confide,
On a passage so treacherous and narrow,
What tongue shall the question decide,
The end which awaits us to-morrow?
O! to-morrow, to-morrow!
What tongue shall the question decide,
The end which awaits us to-morrow?
The sun seems with doubt to look down,
As he rides on his chariot of glory,
A king with a torch and a crown,
But fears to exhibit his story.
What pen the condition makes known,
O! prophet thy light would I borrow,
To steer through the desert alone,
And gaze on the fate of to-morrow;
O! to-morrow, to-morrow!
To steer through the desert alone,
And gaze on the fate of to-morrow.
George Moses Horton (1797–1883) is the author of The Hope of Liberty (1829), The Poetical Works of George M. Horton (1835), The Colored Bard of North-Carolina (1835), and Naked Genius (1865).