Horace King (1807-1885) was the most respected bridge-builder in Alabama, Georgia, and northeastern Mississippi during the mid-nineteenth century. Enslaved until 1846,

Horace King Horace King Horace King (1807-1885) was the most respected bridge-builder in Alabama, Georgia, and northeastern Mississippi during the mid-nineteenth century. Enslaved until 1846, King and his owner, John Godwin, worked as partners on major construction projects. By 1860, he was one of the wealthiest free blacks in Alabama. Both in slavery and a free black, King traveled without any restrictions throughout the Deep South. After reluctantly working for the Confederacy, he served as an Alabama legislator during Reconstruction. His role as an engineer and contractor, during a period when few professional opportunities existed for African Americans, earned him a legendary status that was enhanced over time by towns eager to claim, sometimes erroneously, their own Horace King covered bridge, warehouse, mill, courthouse, church, elaborate Gothic house, or staircase. After his death, local historians and journalists frequently cited Horace King as an example of a successful African American. Although he certainly was an exceptional bridge architect and builder of massive heavy-timber frame structures, his career as an entrepreneur was limited by the racial biases of his time. Eufaula Bridge Born in 1807 into slavery in the Chesterfield District of South Carolina, Horace King was of mixed African, European, and Catawba ancestry. He was purchased by John Godwin, a contractor in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1830 and may have been related to the family of Godwin's wife, Ann Wright (1808-1854) of Marlboro, South Carolina. In 1832, the Godwins, along with Horace, his mother, brother, and sister, relocated to Girard (present-day Phenix City), Alabama, across the river from Columbus, Georgia, and the town hired Godwin to construct the first bridge across the lower Chattahoochee River. By 1837, John Godwin had transferred the ownership of the King family to his wife Ann Godwin and her uncle and financial guardian, William Carney Wright of Montgomery. This was perhaps done to prevent King from being seized by John Godwin's creditors. In 1839, King married Frances Gould Thomas, a free Black woman who was also of mixed ancestry. Her legal status guaranteed freedom for their children. The unusual sanction of such a marriage by Ann Godwin and William Wright underscores the social latitude afforded the enslaved King because of his exceptional talents. Building a covered bridge required many skills, including erecting tall rock or timber piers and constructing lattice framework (trusses) of sawn lumber for the sides connected to massive hand-hewn support timbers. Builders also needed to join all the elements with treenails (large wooden pegs) and ensure that the bridge truss formed a slight arc, known as camber. Godwin probably taught King these skills, but the pupil quickly became more skilled than the teacher. Between 1838 and 1840, King supervised construction of Godwin's massive toll bridges across the Chattahoochee River at West Point, Eufaula, and Florence (present-day Florence Marina), Georgia. Financed by private investors, each span cost close to $22,000—an indication of the economic potential of toll bridges. Robert Jemison Jr. During the early 1840s, King designed and constructed bridges in Alabama and Mississippi while Godwin remained in Girard. Tuscaloosa resident Seth King (no relation to Horace), rather than Horace King, built the initial bridge in 1834 across the Black Warrior River in that town. Seth King, along with Robert Jemison Jr., a state legislator and Tuscaloosa entrepreneur, invested in Horace's bridges at Columbus, Mississippi, in 1843 and Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1844. Godwin negotiated Horace's fee with these investors, but Horace designed the bridges and supervised their construction. Historians believe that Godwin and Horace King probably shared the revenue. The investors made money by collecting tolls on these bridges. Jemison and Horace King continued to collaborate and developed a close working relationship. In early 1845, while working for William Carney Wright, King bridged the Tallapoosa River at Tallassee. Later that year King oversaw construction of three small bridges for Jemison near Steens, Mississippi, where Jemison owned saw and grist mills. In February 1846, Jemison guided an emancipation bill for King through the Alabama legislature, and the Godwins and Wright freed him. King later asserted that he bought his freedom, possibly with income from his projects with Wright and Jemison. Whatever the factors of King's emancipation, he and Godwin experienced a unique relationship. After Godwin's death in 1859, King erected a monument over Godwin's grave. During the early 1850s, the state of Alabama hired King to perform carpentry work, including elegant circular staircases, on the new capitol building in Montgomery. In the mid-1850s King built Moore's Bridge, over the Chattahoochee River on the road between Newnan and Carrollton, Georgia. In 1857, Milledgeville residents hired King to bridge the Oconee River at Milledgeville, Georgia's capital at the time. King's crews just had begun cutting timbers when a conflict arose between King and the investors. At the same time, Nelson Tift, an entrepreneur, newspaper owner, and legislator, contracted with King for a span across the Flint River at Albany, a town founded by Tift in the 1830s. According to local historians King quit the Milledgeville venture, loaded his timbers on a railroad car, and shipped them to Albany. Dillingham Street Covered Bridge By 1858, King and his family had moved to Moore's Bridge. During the next few years, King's activities contradict the idea of free blacks being restricted in terms of their mobility. He constructed bridges and large timber-frame buildings in Alabama and Georgia and often rode the train between his two houses at Moore's Bridge and Girard. King's wife Frances and their children collected tolls and farmed at Moore's Bridge until July 1864, when Union cavalry under Gen. George Stoneman Jr. burned the span. Frances died in Girard about three months later, and in June 1865 King married Sarah Jane Jones McManus. During the Civil War, King attempted to continue building bridges as an independent contractor, but necessity forced him into war-related work. After the war, King maintained that he had always been a Unionist, and that he always "begged and talked for the Union." Even so, Confederate officials in Columbus forced the pro-Union King to blockade the lower Apalachicola River to prevent Union navigation, and the Alabama governor pressed him into the same activity along the lower Alabama River. King also erected a large mill structure and supplied wood products for Confederate naval facilities in Columbus. King maintained good relations with local naval officers, but in 1864 he wrote Jemison, then a member of the Confederate Senate, asking what would happen if he stopped working for the Confederacy. Jemison's response, if any, has not been preserved. Wetumpka Bridge ca. 1880s During Reconstruction, King became a nominal, moderate Republican, serving twice as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 1870 to 1874. He rarely, if ever, occupied his seat during the initial year of his first term and played a limited role in later sessions. He was pre-occupied with the physical reconstruction of wagon and railroad bridges, grist and textile mills, and cotton warehouses. He had also built the initial Lee County courthouse in Opelika in 1867. King reportedly had financial problems but historians have not determined the circumstances. In 1872, King and his family moved to LaGrange, Georgia, where he and his sons continued to build bridges, stores, houses, and college buildings until Horace's death, on May 28, 1885. Lengthy obituaries in white-owned Atlanta, LaGrange, and Columbus newspapers reveal the extent of his fame. King's children—Washington W. (1843-1910), Marshall Ney (1844-79), John Thomas (1846-1926), Annie Elizabeth (1848-1919), and George (1850-1899)—continued their father's profession. Washington moved to Atlanta and built bridges throughout Georgia; his spans, now greatly modified, can be seen at Stone Mountain and Watson Mill State Park near Comer, Georgia. Other members of the family became prominent in the black middle class of LaGrange. Both John and George were builders, and John owned a lumberyard and George operated an annual African American fair. John was the leading layman in the local Methodist Episcopal Church and served as a trustee for that denomination's Clark University from the 1890s to the 1920s. His reputation as a builder extended into Atlanta, where he served as one of two contractors who built the Negro Building at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. In February 2017, the Alabama state government unveiled a portrait of King in the State Capitol that he had helped to build; it is the first portrait of an African American to hang in the seat of the Alabama government. Further Reading Cherry, Rev. Francis. "History of Opelika . . ." 1883. Reprint, Alabama Historical Quarterly 14 (1953): 193-97. Lupold, John S., and Thomas L. French Jr. Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2004. Robert Jemison Jr. Papers, 1797-1898, W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. External Links New Georgia Encyclopedia Alabama Legacy Moments: Horace King

Exploring the life and legacy of John Sella Martin

SOUTHFIELD/BIRMINGHAM — The Birmingham Museum and the Oakland County Historical Society kicked off Black History Month with a lecture on freedom seeker and abolitionist John Sella Martin Jan. 13 at the Southfield Public Library. “The Underground Railroad in Southfield and the Extraordinary Story of John Sella Martin” was the first in a yearlong series sponsored by the Oakland County Historical Society in celebration of its 150th anniversary in 2024. The story of Martin also tied into a five-community research project on the Underground Railroad in Oakland County led by the Birmingham Museum and funded by a grant from the Michigan Council for the Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project involves volunteer-based teams in Birmingham, Farmington, Royal Oak, Pontiac and Southfield researching connections to the Underground Railroad in Oakland County communities. “The goal is to bring awareness of stories of both abolitionists and formerly enslaved freedom seekers to the public,” Leslie Pielack, the Birmingham Museum director and the research project director, stated in a press release. “Sharing documented evidence with educators, students, and families will cast light on the little-known history of the anti-slavery movement in our area. We all benefit when we have more of the whole picture.” A traveling exhibit and interactive website funded by the grant is set to launch later this month. Early stages of research unveiled nearly two dozen documented freedom seekers and abolitionists. The traveling exhibit was on display at the Southfield Public Library for the presentation on Martin and will be traveling around southern Oakland County to be featured in libraries and public buildings for two months at a time where the public can see it free of charge. The lecture opened with a proclamation presented by Oakland County Commissioners Penny Luebs, Gwen Markham, Kristen Nelson, Yolanda Smith Charles and Linnie Taylor in acknowledgment of the Oakland County Underground Railroad Public History Project. Joy Young, a Birmingham Museum genealogy researcher and cultural consultant, became interested in the project while it was on tour through West Bloomfield, where she lives. Young said that her jaw was on the floor at the Birmingham Museum, and she could not believe the history that unfolded in her community. After reading about Martin, she became fascinated by his life and shared that she was surprised that she had never heard his story before. Young began researching and uncovering more about Martin’s life and legacy. She is currently working on a book illustrating the significance of his life’s work. “From my research, I found out he was a man of faith: a pastor, an abolitionist, a leader, a statesman, a civil servant, an orator, a family man, a politician, and an editor who taught himself to read and write. He was an overcomer. He was a dreamer of freedom for himself and others in slavery. He was a revolutionary and a free thinker, well-read and sociable. He showed great courage in his pursuits, and many think he was handsome,” Young said in the presentation. “John Sella Martin, though small in stature at 5 feet 8 1/2 inches, was a giant of a man during the time of slavery, the Civil War and reconstruction. With all of these accolades, he was not perfect, which you shall see. And though he overcame much sorrow and difficulty, his life ended tragically and too soon.” Young led the presentation on Martin and expressed her desire for people to know his story as an integral part of African American and world history. She informed the attendees that they were just mere footsteps away from the spot where Martin sought freedom through the Underground Railroad at Covenanter Church, now known as Southfield Reformed Presbyterian, with the help of abolitionist minister James S.T. Milligan, who housed Martin for six weeks in 1857. After Martin’s time in Southfield, he became a world-renowned Baptist minister, traveling to England and Scotland, where he was considered one of the most influential abolitionists against American slavery. During her presentation, Young detailed the life of Martin, stating that he was born in 1832 in North Carolina into slavery and was the result of a relationship forced upon his mother, Winnifred — Mrs. Henderson forced Winnifred into a relationship with her nephew as a way to distract him from having relationships with other wealthy white women until his marriage to a white heiress. The relationship resulted in two children, Martin and his older sister, Caroline. Around the time Martin was 7 years old, his family was sold by Mrs. Henderson to a slave trader, which led them to Georgia. When he was around 10 years old, he, his mother and his sister were separated when their enslaver sold them to settle a debt. Martin would go on to be bought and sold at least 11 times. At one point enslaved by a man named Mr. Powers, he worked as an errand boy for gamblers. He heard rumors of African Americans living as free people in the north and in Canada. He became passionate about freedom and took it upon himself to learn to read and write. When he was 17 years old, he learned where his mother was and tried to get her to escape her enslaver, who was known for his cruelty. He visited her and watched as her captor ruthlessly beat her. Because of that visit, Martin would spend seven months in jail for running away. In his autobiography, he described this time as “the most valuable months” of his life because he met a man from the north who taught him about grammar, history, arithmetic and geography, and gave him instructions on how to reach the north. A year later, when Mr. Powers died, Martin was sold to an African American from Mobile, Alabama, named Horace King, an architect and builder of many bridges and structures that still stand today. His time with King was short before he was sold again. His mother died in 1852, and he never saw her again. He received a message from her before her passing that he viewed as prophetic: “Tell my son, he shall not wear out his days in slavery.” Martin began planning his escape to the north, and on Jan. 6, 1856, he declared himself a free man at the age of 24 years old. Following the Underground Railroad, Martin made his way to Covenanter Church in Southfield. Martin lived out the remainder of his life as an abolitionist and minister, traveling the country and the world to fight for freedom. He was a colleague of Frederick Douglass and an acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln. When he died in 1876, his obituary appeared in the Detroit Free Press, as well as many other city newspapers in Michigan, England and Canada. “At the young age of 43, and in just 20 years from escaping slavery and going to Chicago, John Sella Martin left his mark on not just African American history, but American and world history,” Young said. “This man accomplished a lion’s share of achievement that benefited Black Americans and Americans over the last 147 years.”