Other Relationships: Poet

Birthplace: Northampton County, North Carolina

Lifespan: 1797/1883

Race: Black

Sex: Male

Relationship(s) to University: Enslaved Person

Era(s): Antebellum, Civil War

Involvement(s): Slavery

Narrative: https://unchistory.web.unc.edu/building-narratives/horton-residence-hall/

More info: http://ncpedia.org/biography/horton-george-moses

Latitude/Longitude: 36.439810, -77.371873

George Moses Horton (c. 1797-c. 1883) published his first book of poetry, The Hope of Liberty, in 1829 while enslaved on a Chatham County, North Carolina, farm. He is the only person to publish a book while enslaved; he hoped that book sales would buy his freedom. Horton often went to Chapel Hill to sell produce and, while there, several UNC students paid him for poems to give to their girlfriends.