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According to a 2011 PBS documentary: "(Milner) was also a supreme racist and a despotic person." He stated, for example, "Negro labor can be made exceedingly profitable in manufacturing iron and in rolling mills, provided there is an overseer: a
Southern man who knows how to manage Negroes." After
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160:. As a railroad engineer, he was the principal player in choosing site of the City of Birmingham, based on his assessment of the strategic resources and transportation advantages of Jones Valley in
152:. He moved to Alabama in 1852 and built a number of railroads. He laid out some of the first railroad lines that ran across Alabama. The primary one was the "North and South" which traversed from
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Alabama Senate for eight years. He was the most conspicuous figure in the creation of Birmingham and one of the most distinguished citizens of Alabama. He died in
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In many respects, he was the father of
Southern industrialization, particularly in the deep, deep South. Milner's vision triggered decades of rapid industrial growth.
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emancipation, Milner was instrumental in the movement of industrialists to replace slavery with "convict" Black laborers. His influence was also a primary cause of
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122:(1826 – August 18, 1898) was an engineer and a businessman. He accumulated wealth in lumber and coal mine interests in
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of paralysis and was interred at Oak Hills
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He was a native of Pike County, Georgia. He spent his early youth in the
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133:gold fields. He received a classical training at
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207:Obituary, The New York Times, August 19, 1898
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