George Moses Horton, poet, enslaved from birth (around 1797) until the close of the Civil War, was born in Northampton County, North Carolina and considered the property of William Horton who also owned his mother, and 9 siblings.
In the winter of 1814, lots were cast and it was determined that he was to be given to William's son James, an in 1815 they moved to Chatham. At James Horton's death in 1843 he was passed to Hall Horton, James's son.

Horton, a slave for 68 years, taught himself to read ( with a New Testament, his mother's Wesley hymnal, an parts of old speller and bits of poetry that he would find) although he did not learn to write until he was an adult, and was the first American slave to protest his bondage in published verse and the first black man to publish a book in the South.

²Page iv
" I became fond of hearing people read; but being nothing but a poor cow-boy, I had but little or no thought of ever being able to read or spell one word or sentence in any book whatever. My mother discovered my anxiety for books, and strove to encourage my plan; but she, having left her husband behind, was so hard run to make a little shift for herself, that she could give me no assistance in that case. At length I took resolution to learn the alphabet at all events; and lighting by chance at times with some opportunities of being in the presence of school children, I learnt the letters by heart; and fortunately afterwards got hold of some

Page v
old parts of spelling books abounding with these elements, which I learnt with but little difficulty. And by this time, my brother was deeply excited by the assiduity which he discovered in me, to learn himself; and some of his partial friends strove to put him before me, and I in a stump now, and a sorry instrument to work with at that. But still my brother never could keep time with me. He was indeed an ostentatious youth, and of a far more attractive person than myself, more forward in manly show and early became fond of popularity to an astonishing degree for one of his age and capacity. He strove hard on the wing of ambition to soar above me, and could write a respectable fist before I could form the first letter with a pen, or barely knew the use of a goose-quill. And I must say that he was quite a remarkable youth, as studious as a judge, but much too full of vain lounging among the fair sex.

But to return to the earlier spring of my progress. Though blundering, I became a far better reader than he; but we were indeed both remarkable for boys of color, and hard raising. On well nigh every Sabbath during the year, did I retire away in the summer season to some shady and lonely recess, when I
Page vi
could stammer over the dim and promiscuous syllables in my old black and tattered spelling book, sometimes a piece of one, and then of another; nor would I scarcely spare the time to return to my ordinary meals, being so truly engaged with my book. And by close application to my book at night, my visage became considerally emaciated by extreme perspiration, having no lucubratory aparatus, no candle, no lamp, nor even light-wood, being chiefly raised in oaky woods. Hence I had to sit sweating and smoking over my incompetent bark or brush light, almost exhausted by the heat of the fire, and almost suffocated with smoke; consequently from Monday morning I anticipated with joy the approach of the next Sabbath, that I might again retire to the pleasant umbrage of the woods, whither I was used to dwell or spend the most of the day with ceaseless investigation over my book."
From THE POETICAL WORKS of GEORGE M. HORTON,
The Colored Bard of North-Carolina

¹ After Horton was relocated, to a plantation near Chapel Hill, seat of the University of North Carolina, he regularly came into contact with the university students. They would commissione him to create love poems, including clever acrostic compositions based on the names of their lovers.
Horton would make up verses in his head. He would dictate the verses to the student and they would write them down.
**He became a popular figure with the students, who paid him between 25 cents and 75 cents to come up with love poems. Horton made about $3 to $4 every week, at a time when meat cost 5 cents a pound and eggs were 10 cents a dozen.

**Horton had been walking to Chapel Hill for about 10 years when he became acquainted with Caroline Lee Huntz, the wife of a professor and herself a writer and poet. She was impressed with his poetry and she began writing it down as Horton dictated. She sent these writings to various newspapers in the state and in the North with resounding effects. Shortly thereafter, Horton's work appeared in Raleigh's newspaper, a noted proponent of colonizing black people back to Africa. The success of his work helped Horton to publish his first collection of poetry, Hope of Liberty. With his second publication, The Poetical Works of George Moses Horton in 1845, Horton hoped to use the profits to buy his freedom.
But the money he earned was never enough.

² "To the much distinguished Mrs. Hentz of Boston, I owe much for the correction of many poetical errors. Being a professional poetess herself, and a lover of genius, she discovered my little uncultivated talent, and was moved by pity to uncover to me the beauties of correctness, together with the true importance of the object to which I aspired. She was extremely pleased with the dirge which I wrote on the death of her much lamented primogenial infant, and for which she gave me much credit and a handsome reward. Not being able to write myself, I dictated while she wrote; and while thus engaged she strove in vain to avert the inevitable tear slow trickling down her ringlet-shaded cheek. She was indeed unequivocally anxious to announce the birth of my recent and astonishing fame, and sent its blast on the gale of passage back to The frozen plains of Massachusetts.
This celebrated lady, however, did not continue long at Chapel Hill, and I had to regret the loss of her aid, which I shall never forget in life. As her departure from Chapel Hill, she left behind her the laurel of Thalia blooming on my mind, and went with all the spotless gaiety of Euphrosyne with regard to the signal services she had done me. In gratitude for all these favors, by which she attempted to supply and augment the stock of servile genius, I inscribe to her the following"

EULOGY.
Deep on thy pillar, thou immortal dame,
Trace the inscription of eternal fame;
For bards unborn must yet thy works adore,
And bid thee live when others are no more.
When other names are lost among the dead,
Some genius yet may live thy fame to spread;
Memory's fair bush shall not decline to bloom,
But flourish fresh upon thy sacred tomb.
When nature's crown refuses to be gay,
And ceaseless streams have worn their rocks away;
When age's vail shall beauty's visage mask
And bid oblivion blot the poet's task,
Time's final shock shall elevate thy name,
And lift thee smiling to eternal fame.
From THE POETICAL WORKS of GEORGE M. HORTON,
The Colored Bard of North-Carolina (pages xvii,xviii,xix)

¹Horton's first book of poetry, The Hope of Liberty (1829; retitled Poems by a Slave), includes several love lyrics originally written for students, as well as hopeful poems about freedom from enslavement. Probably because of fears of punishment, The Poetical Works of George M. Horton, The Colored Bard of North Carolina (1845) addresses the issue of slavery in a subtle manner.

(Introduction for the book "The Poetical Works of George M. Horton, The Colored Bard of North Carolina "
INTRODUCTION. ²"The author of the following miscellaneous effusions, asserts that they are original, and recently written; and they are now presented to the test of criticism, whatever may be the result. It is entirely different from his other work entitled the Museum, and has been written some time since that, and is not so large. The author is far from flattering himself with an idea of superiority, or even equality with ancient or other modern poets. He is deeply conscious of his own inferiority from the narrowness of the scope in which he has lived during the course of his past life. Few men of either a white or colored population, have been less prompted by a desire for public fame than he whose productions are now before you. He was actuated merely by pleasure and curiosity, as a call to some literary task, or as an example to remove the doubts of cavilists with regard to African genius. His birth was low, and in a neighborhood by no means populous; his raising was rude and laborious; his exertions were cramped, and his progress obstructed from start to goal; having been ever deprived of the free use of books and other advantages to which he aspired. Hence his genius is but an unpolished diamond, and can never shine forth to the world.
Forbid to make the least attempt to soar, The stifled blaze of genius burns the more; He still prevails his drooping head to raise, Plods through the bogs, and on the mountains gaze."

His last and largest volume of verse is Naked Genius (1865).

He wrote poems dealing with religion, love, death, joy, sorrow, the desire for freedom, and the despair and hardship of slave life and later of war and hopesickness. His work is poignant and very personal, also antislavery protests in a poetic form.
Horton married a fellow slave and father a son and a daughter.

Horton received his freedom after the civil war and moved to the north. It is said that once Horton gained his freedom he did not write any more poetry, I don't know if this is true or not.

*In 1996, George Moses Horton was inducted into North Carolina's Literary Hall of Fame.

It is thought that Horton spent his final years in Philadelphia. Hardly anything is know about those years or concerning his death. Horton is thought to have died in 1883.