Poet

This story takes place in the 1800s, during slavery in America. George Moses Horton is an inquisitive, enslaved young boy who dreams of reading. He is deeply inspired by the preachers he hears on Sunday mornings during church service and wants to learn how to read. Reading is against the law during slavery so George learns to read through ingenious methods, such as listening to white children recite the alphabet, collecting old spelling books, and teaching himself to read by fireside. When George gets older, he is sold away from his family. In his new plantation, he is responsible for selling fruit at a nearby university. George quickly impresses the students by reciting original poetry and writing poetry for them. He receives payments for his poems and eventually saves up enough to buy his own freedom but his master refuses to let him go free. George spends many years still writing as an enslaved person until he is freed at the end of the Civil War.