Story Treatment
Bridge Builders (working title)
Movie Treatment by Robert Starling starlingrd@msn.com 801 824-2843
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
PREMISE
The “flip side” of Twelve Years a Slave. An incredible-but-true story of a friendship spanning the chasm of the horrors and injustice of slavery.
LOGLINE
In the pre-Civil War Deep South, two men came together to build massive bridges across wide rivers. But John Godwin and his slave Horace King built more than bridges and buildings. Against all odds, and in the crucible of the most horrific social institution in history, they built a bridge of respect, love and friendship between them that stood the test of time, of difficult trials, and even death.
THE STORY
It is May 2000 in Columbus, Georgia – the dedication of the Horace King Friendship Bridge over the Chattahoochee River linking Columbus and Phenix City, Alabama. George Marshall, a news reporter from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution asks a descendant, David King, who is a guest of honor for the festivities, for an interview (The descendant appears to be Caucasian.) They go to nearby restaurant called “Country's Barbeque” for a pulled pork sandwich and as they talk, the backstory begins …
FLASHBACK
We open with a mule-drawn wagon on a dirt road of Georgia red clay in March of 1832. John Godwin and his slave Horace King are traveling to Columbus from Cheraw, South Carolina. King was purchased from J. Jennings Dunlop two years before, in 1830. Godwin is 27, only 9 years older than King, who is 18. King is partly African-American, with Catawba Indian and white ancestors also in his family tree.
Godwin's relatives and neighbors from Chesterfield County, SC had migrated to eastern Alabama a few years before when a treaty with the Creek Nation opened up the “indian territory” for white settlers. Knowing that Godwin had worked on building a bridge across the Pee Dee River in Cheraw, they had sent Godwin a clipping of a newspaper advertisement asking for bids on a new bridge across the Chattahoochee River between the frontier city of Columbus, Georgia and the town of Girard on the western bank in Alabama. Godwin's knowledge of the new Town Lattice Truss engineering methods won him the contract. Ithiel Town's patented technique allowed lengthy bridge spans to be constructed with common sawmill lumber. King had also worked on the Pee Dee bridge, and Godwin knew his experience would be valuable on the new project.
They arrive in Columbus and meet the city officials who have contracted with Godwin to build a 560 foot bridge. They also encounter the Rutherford brothers, owners of the existing ferry south of town who have fought the bridge-building project from the beginning. They are redneck ruffians who don't like the idea of competition. One of the reasons the city is anxious to build a bridge is that they are not satisfied with the ferry service.
THE CITY BRIDGE
They immediately begin building what comes to be known as the City Bridge. Godwin handles the design and engineering, while King assembles crews and materials and directs the construction. When a problem arises with the longer trusses twisting as the lumber dries out, King suggests using an intermediate bracing technique that solves the dilemma. Godwin begins to respect the superior nature of King's abilities and gives him more latitude, and delegates to him more authority. This includes supervising some of the poor white laborers working alongside slaves on the bridge. Godwin puts up a sign: “John Godwin – Bridge Builder”. King grows in confidence, and he shows appreciation to Godwin for the leeway that he’s been given. Other slaves working on the bridge are envious of King’s elevated status. Some tension develops, but King’s demonstrated expertise and his friendly nature changes their envy to admiration and loyalty.
The Rutherford brothers try to hinder the bridge construction, knowing it will be the end of their ferry business. Their efforts include both physical sabotage and raising social objections to the freedom and responsibility given to Godwin's “uppity” slave.
Despite the obstacles, the bridge is completed by September 1833, in record time and on budget. Godwin guarantees his bridge for five years, even against floods. He is hailed by the community as a hero. Against social convention, he gives recognition to King's valuable contribution. At the ribbon cutting celebration Godwin is approached by several wealthy businessmen to build other bridges and buildings. Among them is Robert Jemison, Jr, a prosperous planter and an Alabama State Senator from Tuscaloosa.
With the completion of the bridge and the increased income that it brings, Godwin and King move from their temporary living quarters in Columbus across the river to Girard, in Alabama. They build the first homes on the west side of the river, and find in this border town a more liberal social environment that suits better their unique master-slave relationship and their growing friendship. These two are an exception to the sinful population of the small town that people in Georgia call “Sodom”.
Godwin's role in their efforts begins to lean more to the business development side, while King assumes more of the construction management duties. They begin to act more as partners. They start work on another bridge in Wetumpka, AL for Robert Jemison. Jemison introduces Godwin and Horace to Seth King (a wealthy white man with no relation to Horace). Seth finances the building of another bridge across the Chattahoochee at West Point, GA. He acknowledges Horace's abilities but sees him as a commodity, not as a person.
Horace meets, courts, and marries Frances Thomas Goode, an educated free woman who is part Native American, part black and part white like himself. He is now in his 30's and she is only 14, but this kind of age difference in marriage was not uncommon for the times.
She had been raised in the household of a wealthy family in Montgomery, where the father was a member of the Alabama legislature and a friend of Robert Jemison. They begin a family.
Then the rains came ...
THE FLOOD
An epic regional flood called the “Harrison Freshet” dislodges the first Columbus bridge and washes it 8 miles downstream. The five-year guarantee had expired, so Godwin and Horace are awarded a new contract to rebuild the bridge. But the city's needs require that it be done in an impossibly short time frame.
Godwin promises King his freedom if he completes the rebuilding by the promised deadline of July 1841. Horace comes up with an idea to recover and “recycle” the spans from the old bridge that were beached down the river. He demonstrates his management skills and his humanity by offering bonuses to the construction crew if they can beat the deadline. The workers number all the pieces as they disassemble the spans, and they keep the trusses as intact as possible when they tow them back upstream. The restored bridge is completed on time and everyone rejoices.
But Godwin is unable to grant King his freedom, despite his honest desires to do so. For selfish reasons, Seth King wants Horace to remain under Godwin's ownership and legal control. He informs Godwin that Alabama law does not allow blacks to remain in the state for more than a year after they gain their freedom. Seth's attempts to keep Horace enslaved causes a bitter rift in his friendship with Godwin and Jemison. For the time being a stalemate ensues.
Godwin invests heavily in the Girard-Mobile Railroad Company and loses most of his fortune. In his financial troubles he fears Horace may be sold to someone else and be mistreated, so he transfers ownership to his wife and her uncle William Carey Wright.
Godwin, with Jemison's help, proposes a special act of the Alabama legislature to allow Horace to become free and remain in Alabama. He cites Horace's valuable contributions to the state. Jemison is finally able to get the bill passed in 1846, and Horace becomes a free man. Following the demands of the law, Godwin puts up a thousand dollar bond (with money that actually belongs to Horace) insuring that Horace will not become a burden on the state. The King and Godwin families celebrate.
BUILDING MONTAGE
Godwin and King are seen in a montage sequence supervising the construction of a number of buildings and bridges in Georgia and Alabama as time passes. We see them putting up a new sign: “Godwin and King – Builders”. Later another sign goes up: “King and Sons – Builders”.
The montage is interrupted by a humorous scene in 1848. King comes to Godwin with a complaint that the city of Columbus is charging him a toll to use the bridge that the two of them had built! “I have to pay $5 a year to use the bridge!” Godwin laughs and says, “You're getting off easily – they're charging me $10 a year!” King says, “But get this – the local politicians get to use it for free!” They both laugh.
Godwin goes downhill in both finances and health. King helps the Godwin family, giving to Godwin's married children his own home when he builds another for himself.
John Godwin dies in 1859. Horace and his family grieve along with the Godwins.
The Godwin children, worried that King could be held accountable for their father's debts, takes one further step to ensure the continuation of his freedom by formally recording in the Russell County Courthouse that "the said Horace King is duly emancipated and freed from all claims held by us."
Now a wealthy man, Horace pays $600 to place an 8-foot marble monument on Godwin's grave. As they arrive at the family cemetery for the funeral, Godwin's wife and children gasp in surprise. The inscription on the monument reads:
“This stone was placed here by Horace King, in lasting remembrance of the love and gratitude he felt for his lost friend and former master.”
At the funeral, Horace remains behind at Godwin's grave after everyone else leaves. he vows to Godwin that he will take care of his former master's family.
RETURN FROM FLASHBACK
The reporter George Marshall and Horace's descendant David King are in the Godwin family cemetery. Marshall remarks that he can see why they named the new bridge the “Friendship Bridge”. In the horrible antebellum world of slavery, the friendship between King and Godwin, between master and slave, was certainly an exception to the general rule. David thinks for a minute, then says, “Yeah, I guess my great great grandpa was pretty exceptional in a lot of ways.” Marshall says “we could use more of that kind of friendship today. Things could be a lot different.”
The final shot begins with a two-shot of these two men that includes the grave monument, then rises up over the tree line to reveal the Chattahoochee River, Phenix City and Columbus, and the bridges connecting the two cities.
END
Columbus bridge (rebuilt) Eufaula, AL bridge
Horace King, young and old John Godwin
(more on next p
Alabama Capitol Floating stairway Godwin and King family graves – Phenix City AL
Robert Jemison, Jr King’s first wife (died 1864) King’s 2nd wife
Monument Godwin’s grave Smaller King bridge – still standing in 2025
(THE SEQUEL – THE KING LEGACY CONTINUES)
(outline - incomplete at present)
- King joined a Masonic Lodge that admitted black men. Some say he joined in Ohio because there were no lodges in Alabama that accepted blacks. But when he returned to Alabama he was accepted as a Masonic brother.
1861 - THE CIVIL WAR
- King was conscripted to work in the Confederate Navy Yard in Columbus in the Civil war. His two sons had been conscripted into the Confederate army and he arranged to have them transferred to the navy yard to work with him.
- Kng's first wife Frances died 1864 during the Civil War, leaving him a widower with five children. He remarried at age 62 after the war to Sarah Jane Jones McManus. She was 35 years his junior.
- When Wilson's Raiders of the Union Army captured Columbus in the last land battle of the Civil War in 1865, they burned the covered bridge that Godwin and King had built over the Chattahoochee.
- The confederates had been building a gunboat called the CSS Jackson with Horace's reluctant help, but to avoid its capture by the Yankees they set it adrift on the river and burned it down to the water line, then it sank.
- Union troops took King's mules when troops captured Columbus. They were returned when he identified himself as a Mason.
- After the war in Reconstruction King was “drafted” and elected to the Alabama legislature, and he reluctantly served 3 terms. He was absent most of his first term while building a bridge, but served faithfully in his second and third terms. The white citizens of Russell County voted for him along with the blacks because he was an honest man and they did not want a white Yankee carpetbagger representing their county.
- Horace's 3 sons form a construction company called King Brothers Construction.
- 1872 King moved to LaGrange, GA where he was a respected prominent citizen.
- 1885 King died. A newspaper article had called him “the prince of bridge builders”. Godwin's family members attend his funeral and express their love and friendship.
Horace King FrienHorace King Friendship Bridge over the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, GA
image shot at Ara Ha