Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill

SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

#4799
GEORGE MOSES HORTON POEM
Inventory

Abstract:      An original poem entitled "Departing Love" by
           George Moses Horton, a Chatham County, N.C., slave.
           The poem was commissioned by the Reverend Henry A.
           Dixon of Chapel Hill, N.C., for his bride to be,
           Martha Sugg.  A contemporary transcription, dated 1
           August 1856, by the recipient, Martha Sugg Dixon, is
           also included.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Afro-American authors--North Carolina--History--19th century.
   Afro-American poets--North Carolina--History--19th century.
   American literature--Afro-American authors--19th century.
   American poetry--Afro-American authors--19th century.
   Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
   Dixon, Henry A.
   Dixon, Martha Sugg.
   Horton, George Moses, 1798?-ca.1880.
   Slaves' writings, American--North Carolina.
   Slaves--North Carolina.

Size:  2 items.

Provenance:    Purchased from Swann Galleries in April 1996 (Acc.
               96030).

Related Collections: See list at the end of the inventory.

Access:    Original manuscript in vault storage.  Researchers
           wishing to examine the original must receive
           permission from the senior staff member on duty.
           Retrieval may require one working day.

Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
           their descendants, as stipulated by United States
           copyright law.

Table of Contents:
   Biographical Note
   Other Horton Holdings in the Southern Historical Collection

                        BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

   George Moses Horton (ca. 1797-ca.1883) was a Chatham County,
N.C., slave who 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.  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 helped Horton publish his first work, "Liberty and
Slavery," in the Lancaster [Mass.] Gazette on 8 April 1829.  This
was the first known poem written by a slave protesting his
status.  Horton's "The Hope of Liberty," also published in 1829,
was the first publication in the South by an African American.

[Adapted from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.  For
further information, see The Black Poet by Richard Walser
(1966).]

   OTHER HORTON HOLDINGS IN THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

Additional Horton manuscripts can be found in the following
collections:

From the Pettigrew Family Papers (#592), seven poems, 1836 and
undated (folder 568):
     --   "The Emigrant Girl"
     --   "On Ghosts"
     --   An acrostic (Doctrine Davenport) "Mr. Davenport's
          address to his lady"
     --   An acrostic (Mary M. Davenport) "His lady's reply"
     --   An acrostic (Mary Pettigrew Davenport) "To their little
          daughter"
     --   "The Pleasures of a College Life"
     --   An acrostic (Julia Shepard) "On the pleasures of
          beauty"

From the Gillespie and Wright Family Papers (#275), two acrostics
on the same sheet, undated (folder 17):
     --   "Lo Twilight memorys sweet and pleasing beam"
     --   "Joy may revive in sorrows lonely vale"

From the David L. Swain Papers (#706), three letters, 1844, 1853,
and undated:
     --   To:  Gov. Swain from George M. Horton of colour, 3
          Sept. 1844
     --   To:  [Horace Greely] from George M. Horton of colour,
          11 Sept. 1853
     --   To:  Gov. Swain from George M. Horton, poet, [undated]