Alfred Islay Walden (NBTS Class of 1879) was born a slave in Randolph County, North Carolina and gained freedom only after Emancipation. Sold twice as an infant, he was recognized at a young age for his facility with mental math calculations and general acuity. During his youth, Walden labored as a carpenter, hotel servant and a driver of oxen in a gold mine.
Determined to become a minister, Walden walked to Washington, D.C. during the winter of 1867. For three years in the capital, Walden did manual labor, sold his political ballads on the street and organized Sabbath schools for black children. He then worked his way to New Brunswick, New Jersey by lecturing and selling his poetry; there the Second Reformed Church granted him a scholarship to study at Howard University.
Walden graduated with a degree from Howard in 1876 and enrolled at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. While a student - although he was handicapped by near-blindness - Walden established and ran a mission and school for poor African Americans in New Brunswick. He graduated from NBTS and was ordained in 1879. Soon afterward, the American Missionary Association sent him to Lassister's Mills, NC. Walden had returned home, a certified teacher and minister, and he organized a Congregational church that he successfully led until his death.
Walden's poetry reflects on personal events and everyday emotions. His verses on love and ordinary occasions are written with frankness and humor. His publications include Walden's Miscellaneous Poems, which the author desires to dedicate to the cause of education and humanity (1873) and Walden's Sacred Poems, with a Sketch of His Life (1877).
Information Courtesy of:
The Poetry Foundation
www.poetryfoundation.org
African American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology
By Joan R. Sherman
1992 University of Illinois Press
