sentences:  While not devoted to large plantations, the county was developed for small farms, where slave labor was integral to the owners' productivity and success.By 1860 one-third of the county population were African Americans, chiefly enslaved.George Moses Horton, Historic Poet Laureate of Chatham County, (17981883) lived most of his life enslaved on a farm in Chatham County, moving North after emancipation.