e up the army of capable men whose
toil and trial, whose brawn and brain, whose infinite patience and
indomitable courage have placed this nation of ours in the very front
rank of the world's inventors; and, standing there among them, with his
name indelible, is our dark-skinned brother, the patient, resourceful
Matzeliger.

In the credit here accorded our race for its achievements in the field
of invention our women as well as our men are entitled to share. With an
industrial field necessarily more circumscribed than that occupied by
our men, and therefore with fewer opportunities and fewer reasons, as
well, for exercising the inventive faculty, they have, nevertheless,
made a remarkably creditable showing. The record shows that more than
twenty colored women have been granted patents for their inventions, and
that these inventions cover also a wide range of subjects--artistic,
utilitarian, fanciful.

The foregoing facts are here presented as a part only of the record made
by the race in the field of invention for the first half century of our
national life. We can never know the whole story. But we know enough to
feel sure that if others knew the story even as we ourselves know it, it
would present us in a somewhat different light to the judgment of our
fellow men, and, perhaps, make for us a position of new importance in
the industrial activities of our country. This great consummation,
devoutly to be wished, may form the story of the next fifty years of our
progress along these specific lines, so that some one in the distant
future, looking down the rugged pathway of the years, may see this race
of ours coming up, step by step, into the fullest possession of our
industrial, economic and intellectual emancipation.

NOTE

The writer has in preparation, for early publication, a book which will
deal more in detail with the subject of this pamphlet, presenting the
names of all inventors, so far as ascertained, with the titles of their
inventions and the dates and numbers of their patents, together with
brief biographical sketches of many of the more active inventors.

Published by THE CRISIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

Copyrighted, 1913, by Henry E. Baker

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colored Inventor, by Henry E. Baker

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