( A Great Great Grandfather that vkn is researching)

Quoting"
Horace King was one of the most famous free blacks in Alabama. A slave of South Carolina bridge contractor John Godwin, King supervised the construction of dozens of bridges in Alabama before and after he was manumitted by his owner with the approval of the Alabama legislature in 1846. While it was known that King worked on the Alabama capitol during construction in 1850-51, his responsibilities were not specified; however, he probably built the curving stairs. Restoration of the building in the late 1980s revealed that the bracing design that undergirded the stairs and connected them to the wall without any visible support was exactly the method King used to construct his bridges.

End Quoting"
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Source:
Rogers, Ward, Atkins, Flynt