Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King

Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King

Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King

Bridging Deep South Rivers: The Life and Legend of Horace King

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Overview

Horace King (1807-1885) built covered bridges over every large river in Georgia, Alabama, and eastern Mississippi. That King, who began life as a slave in Cheraw, South Carolina, received no formal training makes his story all the more remarkable. This is the first major biography of the gifted architect and engineer who used his skills to transcend the limits of slavery and segregation and become a successful entrepreneur and builder.

John S. Lupold and Thomas L. French Jr. add considerably to our knowledge of a man whose accomplishments demand wider recognition. As a slave and then as a freedman, King built bridges, courthouses, warehouses, factories, and houses in the three-state area. The authors separate legend from facts as they carefully document King’s life in the Chattahoochee Valley on the Georgia-Alabama border. We learn about King’s freedom from slavery in 1846, his reluctant support of the Confederacy, and his two terms in Alabama’s Reconstruction legislature. In addition, the biography reveals King’s relationship with his fellow (white) contractors and investors, especially John Godwin, his master and business partner, and Robert Jemison Jr., the Alabama entrepreneur and legislator who helped secure King’s freedom. The story does not end with Horace, however, because he passed his skills on to his three sons, who also became prominent builders and businessmen.

In King’s world few other blacks had his opportunities to excel. King seized on his chances and became the most celebrated bridge builder in the Deep South. The reader comes away from King’s story with respect for the man; insight into the problems of financing, building, and maintaining covered bridges; and a new sense of how essential bridges were to the southern market economy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780820355399
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Publication date: 03/01/2019
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

JOHN S. LUPOLD is a professor of history at Columbus State University.

THOMAS L. FRENCH JR., a surveyor and landscape architect based in Columbus, Georgia, is the foremost authority on Georgia’s covered bridges.

John S. Lupold (Author)
JOHN S. LUPOLD is a professor of history at Columbus State University.

Thomas L. French Jr. (Author)
THOMAS L. FRENCH JR., a surveyor and landscape architect based in Columbus, Georgia, is the foremost authority on Georgia’s covered bridges.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrationsvii
Prefacexi
Acknowledgmentsxv
Introduction1
1Pee Dee Origins11
2Ithiel Town's Bridge20
3The Missing Years and Other Mysteries35
4Boom Town on the Chattahoochee43
5To Throw a Bridge across the Chattahoochee51
6Family Ties71
7"Honest" John Godwin and Horace83
8Robert Jemison Jr. and Horace102
9Freedom123
10Horace's Own Bridge143
11The Reluctant Confederate163
12Economic Reconstruction182
13A Nominal Republican211
14The Kings in LaGrange223
15The King Legacy241
16The Legend of Horace King260
Notes271
Bibliography313
Index321
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