Ben Montgomery

Ben Montgomery
Born
Benjamin Thornton Montgomery

c. 1819
Loudoun County, Virginia, US
Died1877 (aged 57–58)
Occupation(s)Inventor, landowner, and freedman
Known forSteam-operated propeller
ChildrenFour, including

Benjamin Thornton Montgomery (c. 1819–1877) was an American inventor, landowner, and freedman in Mississippi. He was taught to read and write English, and became manager of supply and shipping for Joseph Emory Davis at Hurricane Plantation at Davis Bend.

Early life and family

Ben Montgomery was born into slavery in 1819 in Loudoun County, Virginia. In 1837, he was sold south, and purchased in Natchez, Mississippi, by Joseph Emory Davis. He was taken to Hurricane Plantation, the home of Davis and his wife, Eliza. The planter's much younger brother, Jefferson Davis, later became the President of the Confederate States of America.[1] Montgomery escaped but was recaptured. Davis reportedly "inquired closely into the cause of his dissatisfaction", whereby the two men reached a "mutual understanding" about Montgomery's situation.[1]

Davis's "utopian experiment" of the plantation on Davis Bend was centered on his idea that "the less people are governed, the more submissive they will be to control."[2] The enslaved were encouraged to learn trades that interested them, and Davis allowed them to keep extra money they made in their chosen skilled work, rare among Southern enslavers. It was illegal to teach an enslaved person how to read and write in Mississippi, but Davis encouraged it.[3] Montgomery was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and was assigned to run the plantation's general store. Impressed by the talent Montgomery displayed, Davis gave him the responsibility of managing purchasing and shipping for the entire plantation.[4][2]

Montgomery and his wife, Mary Virginia Lewis, whom he married in 1840, had five children. Two daughters, Rebecca and Virginia,[5] and two sons, William Thornton Montgomery (born 1843), and Isaiah Montgomery (born May 21, 1847), reached adulthood.[5][2] Purchasing his wife's time from Davis, he was able to allow his children to be raised by Mary, and the children received an education and had access to the library. Their son William, after serving as county treasurer in Warren County, Mississippi, would later move to Dakota Territory, where he purchased a significant amount of property, working as a farmer and a businessman in the Red River Valley.[6][7] Isaiah went on to found the black community of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and "pursued racial harmony through accommodation" in his participation in the 1890 Mississippi constitutional convention; Isaiah's daughter Mary Booze was a political organizer.[8][9]

Career

Montgomery learned a variety of skills, including reading, writing, land surveying, flood control, architectural design, machine repair, and steamboat navigation.[4][10] Montgomery developed proficiencies in many areas; he became a skilled mechanic, not only repairing the advanced agricultural machinery acquired by the Davis brothers, but eventually applied for a patent for his design of a steam-operated propeller to provide propulsion to boats in shallow water.

The propeller could cut into the water at different angles, thus allowing the boat to navigate more easily through shallow water. This was not a new invention, but an improvement on similar designs invented by John Stevens in 1804 and John Ericsson in 1838. (U.S. patent 588) On June 10, 1858, on the basis that Ben, as a slave, was not a citizen of the United States, and thus could not apply for a patent in his name, he was denied this patent application in a ruling by the United States Attorney General's office. It ruled that neither slaves nor their owners could receive patents on inventions devised by slaves because slaves were not considered citizens and the slave owners were not the inventors.[2][11] Later, both Joseph and Jefferson Davis attempted to patent the device in their names but were denied because they were not the "true inventor." After Jefferson Davis later was selected as President of the Confederacy, he signed into law the legislation that would allow slaves to receive patent protection for their inventions.[12] On June 28, 1864, Montgomery, no longer a slave, filed a patent application for his device, but the patent office again rejected his application.[2]

Joseph Davis allowed captive Africans on his plantation to retain money earned commercially, so long as they paid him for the labor they would have done as farmworkers. Thus, Montgomery was able to accumulate wealth, run a business, and create a personal library.[13]

Ownership of Davis Bend

See also: Forty acres and a mule § Davis Bend

The Davis family left Davis Bend in 1862, ahead of oncoming troops from the Union Army. Montgomery assumed control of the plantation. Farming continued despite difficulties created by the war, such as attacks from the military forces of both sides.[14] For a time, he worked for Union Admiral David D. Porter.[2]

Following the end of the American Civil War, Joseph Davis sold his plantation and property to Montgomery, in 1866, for the sum of $300,000 (~$4.9 million in 2023) as part of a long-term loan.[4]

In September 1867, Montgomery became the first Afro-American official elected in Mississippi, when he was elected justice of the peace of Davis Bend.[15][16] Under his supervision, the plantation produced cotton judged to be the best in the world at an International Exposition in 1870.[15]

With his son Isaiah, Montgomery established a general store known as Montgomery and Sons. Montgomery worked toward his lifelong dream of establishing a community for freed slaves. He never lived to see his dream come to fruition. Catastrophic floods ruined the crops and cut a channel across the peninsula, turning Davis Bend into an island. This added to the expenses of getting supplies to the plantation and crops to market. When Montgomery failed to make a payment on the loan in 1876, Davis Bend automatically reverted to the Davis family as per the terms of the original contract. Heartbroken, Montgomery died the next year. He was interred in Brierfield Plantation Cemetery, Le Tourneau, Warren County, Mississippi.

Legacy

After his father's death, Isaiah Montgomery worked to realize his dream. He purchased 840 acres (3.4 km2) between the Vicksburg and Memphis railroad lines in northwest Mississippi for the purpose of establishing the community of freed slaves his father dreamed of. Along with other former slaves, Isaiah Montgomery established the town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi; in 1887 and developed it as a majority African-American community.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Hermann 1980, p. 315.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Turnipseed, Cassie Sade (August 2016). Creating a Commemorative Site on the Heritage and Memory of Cotton Pickers in the Mississippi Delta: a Community Driven Moment (PhD thesis). Middle Tennessee State University. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  3. ^ Hermann 1981, p. 316.
  4. ^ a b c "Ben Montgomery". The Black Inventor Online Museum. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Currie, James Tyson (July 11, 2017). "Montgomery, Benjamin Thornton". Center for Study of Southern Culture: Mississippi Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  6. ^ Hermann 1981, pp. 219–225.
  7. ^ Drache, Hiram M. (1970). The Challenge of the Prairie: The Life and Times of Red River Pioneers. Fargo, North Dakota: North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies. pp. 200–201.
  8. ^ McMillen, Neil R. (February 2007). "Isaiah T. Montgomery, 1847–1924 (Part II)". Mississippi History Now. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  9. ^ Garrett-Scott, Shennette (2018). "Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze". Part II: Black Women Suffragists. Introduction by Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar. Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press. Retrieved March 17, 2024 – via Alexander Street.
  10. ^ Hermann 1980, p. 316.
  11. ^ Frye, Brian L. (February 15, 2017). "Invention of a Slave". Syracuse Law Review. 68 (181). Rochester. SSRN 2918085. Retrieved March 16, 2024 – via SSRN.
  12. ^ Bethea, Olivia Constance (2021). "The Unmaking of 'Black Bill Gates': How the U.S. Patent System Failed African-American Inventors". University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online. 170 (1). ISSN 1942-8537.
  13. ^ Hermann 1980, p. 316: "Like all the Davis' slaves, Montgomery could keep whatever he earned beyond the equivalent of his worth as a field hand. Since his store prospered, counting among its customers the white planters and their families as well as the slaves, Ben was able to build a store building and living quarters near the landing at Hurricane."
  14. ^ Hermann 1980, p. 316: "When Joseph Davis and his family fled from the plantation in 1862, Benjamin Montgomery was left in charge of the house and grounds as well as the hundred or more slaves who were not taken along. For a year he supervised the production of corn and vegetables to provide subsistence for the black community. Wartime shortages led him to develop a tanning and shoe-making industry to supply their own needs and to provide a small income from the neighbors. In June 1862, the Union Navy raided and burned the mansion at Hurricane, and a few months later, despite Montgomery's protests, the Confederate Army burned the cotton crop. Life along the river became increasingly hazardous."
  15. ^ a b Verney 1983, p. 68.
  16. ^ Hermann 1981, pp. 129–130: "General Ord finally yielded to this pressure and asked Ben Montgomery if he could qualify for and would accept the office of justice of the peace at Davis Bend. Upon receipt of Ben's affirmative reply, Ord issued the required order on September 10. Montgomery told Davis that he has been pleased with the appointment of Huntington and regretted that the white man could not qualify. [...] Nineteen months later, in April 1869, John Roy Lynch was named justice of the peace at Natchez. This ambitious young freedman went on to the state and eventually the national legislature. Referring to his appointment as justice of the peace, Lynch claimed that it was 'the first time in the history of the state that a colored man had been commissioned to fill such an office.' Later Governor Adelbert Ames claimed that there was 'not a single colored man in office' when he appointed Lynch in 1869. These erroneous claims from people who lived so near Davis Bend show how successful the Montgomerys were at avoiding publicity."
  17. ^ Wormser, Richard (2002). "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Isaiah Montgomery". Thirteen.org. Retrieved March 16, 2024.

Sources