Horton, George Moses, 1798?-approximately 1880

George Moses Horton was born into slavery on William Horton's plantation, likely in 1798, in Northampton County, North Carolina. William Horton's estate was broken up in 1819; George was separated from his family. As a child he taught himself to read and compose poetry. By the age of 20, he began visiting the University of North Carolina and selling to the students acrostic love poems based on the names of their girlfriends. George was able to buy some time from his owner, James Horton; he was not freed, though, until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

His literary efforts were encouraged by a number of well-placed individuals, including the novelist Caroline Lee Hentz, North Carolina Governor and later University President David L. Swain, and newspaperman Horace Greeley. Hentz, encouraged him and arranged for the publication of a collection, The Hope of Liberty. The book, the first published in the South by a black man, did not sell enough copies for Horton to purchase his freedom, nor did two subsequent collections.

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