Horace King

Horace King (sometimes Horace Godwin) (September 8, 1807 – May 28, 1885) was an African-American architect, engineer, and bridge builder. He is considered the most respected bridge builder of the 19th century Deep South, constructing dozens of bridges in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.

King was born into slavery on a South Carolina plantation in 1807. In 1830, he was sold to the contractor John Godwin, who taught King to read, write, and build despite prohibitions on teaching enslaved people. Between 1833 and 1846, he was a partner in Godwin's contracting business, building bridges, courthouses, and warehouses. King purchased his freedom in 1846 and embarked on a successful career as an independent builder, playing a major role in the construction of Alabama's State Capitol. He may have even purchased an enslaved person. During the Civil War, he was conscripted by Confederate authorities to build military structures, and contributed to the construction of some of the Confederacy's ironclads. After the end of the war, he continued his construction business, and spent two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives. Affectionately known as "Prince of Bridge Builders", he built bridges, warehouses, houses, and churches, and was known for his service to his community. He died in 1885, and passed on his business to his sons.

Early career Horace King was born enslaved in 1807 in the Cheraw District of South Carolina, in present-day Chesterfield County. His ancestry was a mix of African, European, and Catawba. Late 19th-century biographer F. L. Cherry described his complexion as showing more "Indian blood than any other." Taught to read and write early, King became a proficient carpenter and mechanic by his teenage years.

Records indicate that King spent his first 23 years near his birthplace, with his first introduction to bridge construction in 1824. In 1824, bridge architect Ithiel Town came to Cheraw to assist in the construction of a bridge over the Pee Dee River. While it is unknown whether King assisted in the construction of this bridge or its replacement span built in 1828, Town's lattice truss design, used in both Pee Dee bridges, became a hallmark of King's future work.

When King's enslaver died around 1830, King was sold to John Godwin, a contractor who also worked on the Pee Dee bridge. King may have been related to the family of Godwin's wife, Ann Wright. The pair began many other construction projects, including house building. They built Godwin's house first, then King's. Many speculative houses followed this, and the two men completed nearly every early house in Girard. The Columbus City Bridge was the first known to be built by King, who likely planned the bridge's construction and managed the slave laborers who built the span.

Rise to prominence Between the completion of the Columbus City Bridge in 1833 and the early 1840s, King and Godwin partnered on eight major construction projects throughout the Southern United States. In 1834, the partners constructed forty cotton warehouses in Apalachicola, Florida. The two men designed and built the courthouses of Muscogee County, Georgia, and Russell County, Alabama, from 1839 to 1841, and bridges in West Point, Georgia (1838), Eufaula, Alabama (1838–39), Florence, Georgia (1840). They built a replacement for their Columbus City Bridge between Columbus and Girard in 1841, after an 1838 flood destroyed the original.

During a time of financial difficulty, in 1837, Godwin transferred the enslavement of King to his wife and her uncle, William Carney Wright of Montgomery, Alabama. Godwin may have done this to prevent his creditors from obtaining King. King's prominence had eclipsed Godwin's by the early 1840s. King worked independently as architect and superintendent of major bridge projects in Columbus, Mississippi, (1843) and Wetumpka, Alabama, (1844). King bridged the Tallapoosa River at Tallassee, Alabama in 1845. Later that same year, he built three small bridges for Jemison near Steens, Mississippi, where the latter owned several mills. When Godwin died in 1859, King erected a monument over his grave.

Around 1855, King formed a partnership with two other men to construct a bridge, known as Moore's Bridge, over the Chattahoochee between Newnan and Carrollton, Georgia, near Whitesburg. Instead of collecting a fee for his work, King took equity, gaining a one-third interest in the bridge. King moved his wife and children to the area near the bridge about 1858, although he continued to commute between it and their other home in Alabama. Frances King and their children collected bridge tolls and farmed at Moore's Bridge.

As enslaver It is believed that King purchased an enslaved person named J. Sella Martin in the 1850s. When King attempted to subdue Martin by flogging him, he was disappointed by Martin's resistance. King quickly sold him to a slave trader; Martin would escape slavery in 1856 and became well-known as an abolitionist orator.

American Civil War King was conscripted to assist in the construction of Confederate ironclads, including this ship, the CSS Muscogee.

After the outbreak of hostilities, King attempted to continue his business as an architect and builder, constructing a factory and a mill in Coweta County, Georgia, and a bridge in Columbus, Georgia. While working on the Columbus bridge, Confederate authorities conscripted King to build obstructions in the Apalachicola River, south of Columbus to prevent a naval attack on the city. After completing the obstructions on the Apalachicola, Confederates tasked King to construct defenses on the Alabama River before returning to Columbus in 1863.

By this time, Columbus had become a major shipbuilding city for the Confederacy. King and his men were assigned to assist in constructing vessels at the Columbus Iron Works and Navy Yard. In 1863–64, King constructed a rolling mill for the Iron Works, which manufactured cladding for Confederate ironclad warships. King's crews also provided lumber and timbers for the Navy Yard. They were at least peripherally involved with the construction of the CSS Muscogee. During 1864, King wrote to Jemison, who had also opposed secession but was then serving in the Confederate Senate. King asked what would happen if he stopped working for the Confederacy. Jemison's response is unknown. King remarried in June 1865 to Sarah Jane Jones McManus.

When the Reconstruction Acts were implemented in 1867, King became a registrar for voters in Russell County, Alabama. Later that year, he attempted to establish a colony of freedmen in Georgia. While that plan was unsuccessful, King was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1868 as a Republican representing Russell County. Busy in his construction business in Columbus, King did not take his seat for more than a year, in November 1869. King remained a reluctant legislator, voting 78% of the time and proposing only three bills—none of which became law. King was reelected in 1870, proposing no bills in the 1870-71 session and only five in the 1871-72 session, one of which—a prohibition on the sale of alcohol in Hurtsboro, Alabama—became law. King did not seek reelection in 1872.

Final years

King left the Alabama Legislature in 1872 and moved with his family to LaGrange, Georgia. While in LaGrange, King continued building bridges and expanded to include other construction projects, specifically businesses and schools. By the mid-1870s, King had begun to pass on his bridge construction activities to his five children, who formed the King Brothers Bridge Company. King's health began failing in the 1880s, and he died on May 28, 1885, in LaGrange.

King received laudatory obituaries in Georgia's major newspapers, a rarity for African Americans in former slavery states. He was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Engineers Hall of Fame at the University of Alabama. The award was accepted on his behalf by his great-grandson, Horace H. King, Jr. He was remembered both for his engineering skill and his character.

Works Columbus, Georgia Bridge (destroyed by a flood in 1841) (1832–33) Forty cotton warehouses in Apalachicola, Florida (1834) West Point, Georgia Bridge (1838) Eufaula, Alabama Bridge (demolished in 1924) (1838–39) Florence, Georgia Bridge (1840) Replacement Columbus, Georgia Bridge (1841) Muscogee County Courthouse (1839–41) Russell County Courthouse (1839–41) Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge, Georgia, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the last remaining covered bridge designed by King (1840s) Second Columbus, Mississippi Bridge (burned during American Civil War) (1843) Wetumpka, Alabama Bridge (1844) Tallassee, Alabama Bridge (1845) 3 minor bridges near Steens, Mississippi (1845) Interior framework and spiral staircases of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark (1850–51) Moore's Bridge near Whitesburg, Georgia (burned during Civil War) (1855) Milledgeville, Georgia Bridge (1850s) The Bridge House (Albany, Georgia) in Albany, Georgia, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now being used as the Albany Welcome Center (1858) Third Columbus, Mississippi Bridge (demolished in 20th century) (1865) City Mills Hotel original building in Columbus, Georgia (1869) Tuscaloosa, Alabama Bridge over the Black Warrior River (destroyed by tornado in 1880) (1872) Wehadkee Creek Bridge, Troup County, Georgia (1973). Destroyed by flood. Rebuilt by son, George (1890). Moved 60' to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga., in 1960s. In 2022, moved to LaGrange, Troup County, Georgia, and placed adjacent to Horace King's gravesite within Mulberry Street Cemetery Opened to public July 24, 2025.