George Moses Horton, Marker H-108
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showbizkid
N 35° 47.617 W 079° 05.995
17S E 671705 N 3962723
This marker commemorates slave poet George Moses Horton who lived in Chatham County. It is located on US Route 15-501 North in northern Chatham County.
Waymark Code: WMETH
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 06/13/2006
Views: 35
George Moses Horton was a slave in Chatham County from 1800 to 1865. During that time he was inspired by the rural countryside, the people in his life, and his experiences as a slave to make up and perform poems to express himself. He learned to read and write when it was against the law. With the help of a professor's wife at UNC, he published two books of poems. He sold love poems to college students at a farmers market in Chapel Hill. Horton hoped to save enough money to buy his freedom and he became a symbol for people against slavery.
Horton was never able to purchase his freedom. In 1865 he left Chatham County with Union soldiers and went north to freedom. He published a third book, Naked Genius, while living in Raleigh. He died in Philadelphia in 1883.
A middle school in Pittsboro is named for George Moses Horton. In 1996, Horton was inducted into North Carolina's Literary Hall of Fame. In 1997 Chatham County Commissioners declared Horton "Historic Poet Laureate" of Chatham County.
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