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Jul 17, 2019 - 03:04 PM
African-Americans have made many contributions and have faced and overcome many obstacles throughout the course of history. Systematic racism and discrimination stopped many promising people of color from pursuing the American dream, but it didn't stop these bright, innovative individuals from developing inventions that have changed the world. Slavery prevented almost all people of color from obtaining a patent because they weren’t considered citizens and as a result, they were forced to give their ideas to their caucasian slave owners or have their ideas outright stolen from them receiving nothing in exchange. Their owners could not register a slave's invention either, since the law required that the patent be issued to the actual inventor, but many found a way around that law. For example, any free person wanting to patent something could not acknowledge any contribution from a slave.
This simple and effective method made it easy to steal a slave's ideas and patent them. A few inventions discovered by African Americans are as follows:
Jack Daniel Whiskey - Nearis Green https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...
The firefighter suits worn today are inspired by a person of color.
Electricity - Lewis Howard Latimer (September 4, 1848 – December 11, 1928) was an American inventor and patent draftsman for the lightbulb and telephone.
The Cotton Gin - Was credited to Eli Whitney, but many knew that he actually stole and enlarged on the idea thought up by slaves to use a combing mechanism to clear out the seeds and debris from the cotton.
In one well-documented case, a black inventor named Ned invented an effective, innovative cotton scraper. His slave master, Oscar Stewart, attempted to patent the invention. Because Stewart was not the actual inventor, and because the actual inventor was born into slavery, the application was rejected.
Stewart ultimately began selling the cotton scraper without the benefit of patent protection and made a significant amount of money doing so. In his advertisements, he openly touted that the product was “the invention of a Negro slave – thus giving the lie to the abolition cry that slavery dwarfs the mind of the Negro. When did a free Negro ever invent anything?”
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innova...
Countless other inventions were claimed (stolen) by white slave owners and patented. Many people knew the truth, but it went unchallenged and many of these inventions became very profitable and still in use today and the descendants of these profitable ideas are still reaping the benefits.
This simple and effective method made it easy to steal a slave's ideas and patent them. A few inventions discovered by African Americans are as follows:
Stewart ultimately began selling the cotton scraper without the benefit of patent protection and made a significant amount of money doing so. In his advertisements, he openly touted that the product was “the invention of a Negro slave – thus giving the lie to the abolition cry that slavery dwarfs the mind of the Negro. When did a free Negro ever invent anything?”
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innova...
Countless other inventions were claimed (stolen) by white slave owners and patented. Many people knew the truth, but it went unchallenged and many of these inventions became very profitable and still in use today and the descendants of these profitable ideas are still reaping the benefits.
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