James Samuel King was born into slavery in the spring of 1851, at the edge of a nation on the brink of upheaval. His mother, Catherine Harper King, was enslaved in Tennessee. Of his father, history remains silent—his name lost to time—but James carried the surname King, a name that may have originated with the men who once claimed ownership of his bloodline. Some census records list Alabama as his birthplace, others Tennessee, but most roads lead back to the rugged red soil of West Tennessee, where Catherine's roots ran deep. It is likely that James was born there, on a modest farm or plantation, under the control of white landowners whose names are no longer remembered but whose power once shaped the lives of every Black child born on their land.