Ben Montgomery

Benjamin T. Montgomery (1819–1877) was an influential African American inventor, landowner, and freedman.

Early life

In 1837, before the outbreak of the Civil War, Montgomery was sold as a slave to Joseph Emory Davis. Davis' brother, Jefferson Davis, later became the President of the Confederate States of America. Prior to the war, Montgomery managed a general store on the Davis Bend plantation in Mississippi, where slaves could trade for dry goods and where whites could purchase the items traded in by the slaves. It was unusual for a slave to serve in this position.

Taught to read and write by his owners, Montgomery eventually became responsible for overseeing the entire purchasing and shipping operations of the plantation. The Davis family taught him many skills including land surveying, flood control, and architecture.

On May 21, 1847, Montgomery's son, Isaiah Montgomery, was born. Due to Ben's favored position among the Davis Bend slaves by the Davis family, Isaiah was also given the opportunity of receiving an education. Montgomery maintained a close relationship with his son up until his death.

Later career and death

Montgomery also worked as an inventor. In the late 1850s he applied for a patent for his design of a steam operated propeller to provide propulsion to boats in 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 he was denied this patent application in a ruling by the United States Attorney General's office, on the grounds that neither slaves nor their owners could receive patents on inventions devised by slaves.

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 as part of a long-term loan. With his son Isaiah, Montgomery established a general store known as Montgomery & Sons. Montgomery worked towards 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, 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.

However, after his father's death, Montgomery's son Isaiah purchased 840 acres (3.4 km²) between the Vicksburg and Memphis railroad lines 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.