Horton Historical
A project by Horton HistoricalThis project is about the extraordinary life of one George Moses Horton, who, though born a slave, became a great American poet. In North Carolina, where literacy was denied slaves, Horton managed to escaped the censorship of slave literacy laws, by being an oral poet.
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Take a Tour
3 - First Trip to University of North Carolina
2 - Birth, Boyhood, and Plowboy
17 - Phildelphia and Streetcar Discrimination
13 - Union Army Comes to Chapel Hill
8 - Nat Turner and Stricter Laws on Slave Literacy
6 - Caroline Hentz
1a - Cecil Brown, curator
Recent Stories
I am untaught, don't be offended
In the preface to the second book, he published in 1845, Horton apologizes to the white reader for his genius. He doesn't want any white person to feel that he is competing with them.
Liberty and Slavery
This poem was published in 1829 in Lancaster, Mass and was reprinted by David Walker, in his Freedom's Journal, New York.
Meditations on a Cold, Dark and Rainy Night
Horton wrote this poem in 1845 for Poetical Works published that year.
Miss Tempe
An allegorical poem about a storm, but actually about Tempe James, a white woman uprooted her community by marrying a black man.