African-American Inventors
Following are some bits of information that may be helpful in teaching about the growth of industry in the United States between the years 1800 and 1860.
There are few records of inventions by African-Americans before 1860. One reason for this is that inventions by slaves were credited to someone else, most likely their masters or employers, because slaves were not allowed to take out patents on their inventions and because they were not permitted to sign contracts.
Henry Blair of Maryland was the first African-American to be granted a patent. In 1834 he received a patent for a corn harvester that he invented.
The Negro History Bulletin
for April, 1957, tells the story of Norbert Rillieux, a freedman, who was largely responsible for developing a process and the machinery which could convert sugar cane into sugar crystals more efficiently and more cheaply than had ever before been possible.The credit for starting New England on its way to becoming the shoemaking capital of the world in the late 1800's and early 1900's belongs to Jan Matzeliger. Matzeliger was not the typical African-American. He was born in South America, but his family migrated to the United States. Although he was young at the time, he was already a fine mechanic having been taught by his father.
Matzeliger's first job was in a shoemaking factory in Lynn, Massachusetts. At that time shoes were made by skilled craftsmen sitting at benches making one shoe at a time, piece-by-piece. He believed there had to be more efficient, less time-consuming, and less expensive ways to make shoes-and he found them.
Whenever he had spare time, which was not frequent, he labored over his shoe machine invention. He had very little money for parts such as iron gears or for tools to work with. Somehow, he managed to find what he needed.
One day after many disappointing attempts, he succeeded in making a model machine that accomplished the most difficult step in shoemaking – fitting the soles of shoes to the upper parts.
His machine was an instant success; it was the beginning of a revolution in the shoemaking process. Here are some of the results of Matzeliger's genius and determination:
Shoes became far less expensive because the time and the costs of making shoes were greatly reduced.
New jobs were created because the increase in the demand for shoes brought about an increase in the number of workers needed to make them.
