- George Moses Horton
George Moses Horton (1797?-1883?) was an
African-American slave who composed poetry. He was born intoslavery on a tobacco farm in rural Chatham County,North Carolina , and composed poems in his mind through his teen years. He was allowed by his master to visit the nearbyUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he recited poems to students who eagerly wrote them down and paid him for his compositions. His fame spread, and a collection of poems was published under the title "The Hope of Liberty" (1829). Horton was the first black southern author and the first African American poet to produce a volume in more than half a century.Two more collections of Horton's poetry include "Poetical Works" (1845) and "Naked Genius" (1865). Horton began calling himself "the Colored Bard of North Carolina." Many of his works were vivid and powerful attacks on
slavery .After the
American Civil War , Horton moved toPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania , where he lived until his death. Once in the north, he never published another verse.During the summer of 2006, UNC Chapel Hill renamed a newly built dorm, previously known as Hinton James North, to George Moses Horton dormitory.
External links
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/hortonlife/bio.html Biography of George Moses Horton]
* [http://www.learnnc.org/articles/horton0403-1The George Moses Horton Project: Celebrating a triumph of literacy] by Marjorie Hudson
* [http://www.chathamarts.org/horton/ The George Moses Horton Project]
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