George Moses Horton, slave bard of North Carolina, was "the first Negro professional man of letters in America and one of the first professional writers of any race in the South." Horton's three volumes of poetry were published in his lifetime, two of them while he was still legally a slave; one of them was transcribed for him before he had even learned to write. Horton was the first black southerner to have a volume of poetry published. (Phillis Wheatley, a northern slave from Massachusetts, had had volumes of poetry published earlier.)

Despite Horton's impressive list of "firsts," his birth and death dates are not known. George Moses Horton was born as a slave on the farm of William Horton in Northampton County, North Carolina, near the falls of the Roanoke River. The year of his birth is generally believed to be 1797 or 1798, mainly on the strength of...