Civil War
"I stood on the Union Side and always begged and talked for the Union...I adhered to the Union cause."
- Horace King Interrogatories, February 28, 1878 |
Above: Photograph, Confederate Ironclad C.S.S. Arkansas, 1904, R.G. Skerrett, US Naval Historical Center courtesy of the Navy Art Collection
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"While the war presented prospects of increased profits, it changed the rhythm of King's work. His bridge building activities became impossible to maintain...While eventually forced to work for the South, he always resented it...
From May 1863 until April 1864 King, as a private contractor, constructed a stable and a new rolling mill building for the [Columbus] Iron Works. Designed to melt iron, usually railroad rails, and shape or roll it into iron plate, the mill was to provide cladding for the Muscogee and other [iron clad] ships." (Lupold, John S. and French, Jr., Thomas L. Bridging Deep South Waters, 2004). "None of it was voluntary. I had no power to prevent it." (Horace King Interrogatories, February 28, 1878). "In his statement, King said he only worked at the Naval Iron Works because that was what was obliged to do as a free colored man living in the South." (Gibbons, Faye. Horace King: Bridges to Freedom, 2002). |
Horace King's World: Postwar and Reconstruction
After the Civil War, times were still difficult in the South for African Americans. But the South needed to rebuild during Reconstruction, and it needed proven engineers and builders.
"Virtually from the moment the Civil War ended, the search began for legal means of subordinating a volatile black population...Many localities in the summer of 1865 adopted ordinances limiting black freedom of movement, prescribing severe penalties for vagrancy, and restricting black's rights to rent or purchase real estate and engage in skilled urban jobs" (Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1988). "It was the policy of the state to keep the Negro laborer poor, to confine him as far as possible to menial occupations, to make him a surplus labor reservoir and to force him into peonage and unpaid toil" (Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America, 1935). "The South's economic transformation...took place in a war-torn, capital-scarce region that lacked the institutional base for sustained economic growth...In retrospect, it appears all but inevitable that the postwar South would descend into a classic pattern of underdevelopment" (Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1988). |
Above: Richmond, Va. Wheels and Burned Railroad Cars. Library of Congress, 1865.
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City Mills: Columbus, Ga. Photograph, 2014.
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King wanted his own business and he saw Reconstruction as his opportunity. In 1867, he achieved his goal of being a contractor, winning the Columbus City bid to build another bridge over the Chattahoochee.
He also built City Mills in 1869 in Columbus, Ga to produce corn meal. "As for Horace King, he was busier than ever after the war. Everyone seemed to want him to rebuild their bridges and factories. King started a new company called King Brothers Bridge Company to reflect the fact that his children were now part of the business." (Gibbons, Faye. Horace King: Bridges to Freedom, 2002). "With the end of the war, King achieved a new level of freedom, and the wake of destruction left by the Federals opened up unlimited construction possibilities for this established contractor. While white elites mourned the passing of the Confederacy and blacks celebrated their new freedom, few people enjoyed as many opportunities as Horace King." (Lupold, John S. and French Jr., Thomas L. Bridging Deep South Rivers, 2004) |
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