King spent his last thirteen years leading a double life. In 1887 or 1888, he met and fell in love with
Ada Copeland, an African-American nursemaid and former slave from
Georgia, who had moved to New York City in the mid-1880s. As
miscegenation was strongly discouraged in the nineteenth century (and illegal in many places), King hid his identity from Copeland. Despite his blue eyes and fair complexion, King convinced Copeland that he was an African-American
Pullman porter named James Todd. The two entered into a
common law marriage in 1888. Throughout the marriage, King never revealed his true identity to Ada, pretending to be Todd, a black railroad worker, when at home, and continuing to work as King, a white geologist, when in the field