Chatham County, North Carolina in 1771 from Orange County. It had been named in 1758 for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768 and opposed harsh colonial policies. In 1907, parts of Chatham County and Moore County were combined to form Lee County. 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, (1797?-1883) lived most of his life enslaved
Chatham kaka Chatham kaka The Chatham kaka or Chatham Island kaka ("Nestor chathamensis") is an extinct parrot species previously found on the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. The first individuals were thought to belong to the kaka ("Nestor meridionalis"), but detailed examination of the subfossil bones showed that they actually belong to a separate endemic species. The species became extinct within the first 150 years of the arrival of the Polynesians around 1550, long before any European settlers. No skins or descriptions are available. The Chatham kaka is assigned to the genus "Nestor" in the family Nestoridae, a small group of parrot species