A noted 19th century African American poet, Whitman was born into slavery in Hart County on May 30, 1851. Self-educated, by age 22 he had published two books of poetry, Essay on the Ten Plagues and Other Miscellaneous Poems and Leelah Misled. He moved to Zanesville, Oh., and wrote a third book, Not a Man and Yet a Man.
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After attending Wilberforce Univ., he became a minister in the A.M.E. Church. He is remembered for narrative poems celebrating the potential of African Americans emerging from slavery. The street north of this marker is named in his honor.