Montgomery Bell-- Part 2: Emancipated His Slaves

Montgomery Bell immediately began to enlarge the operations by building other furnaces and mills.

In 1808, he was buying wood at 50 cents a cord to fire the Cumberland Furnace which cast cannon balls used by Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.

He built a home called Bell View.  His business interests were severely hurt by the Panic of 1819.

By 1835, he had sent fifty of his freed slaves to Liberia and in 1853, sent fifty more.  Eventually he emancipated 150 more.  He even went so far as to hire a teacher from Philadelphia to teach them how to read and write, something that was very illegal at the time.

--Brock-Perry