Thomas Jennings

Thomas Jennings

Thomas Jennings
1791-1856

filigree

Snapshot

  • Thomas Jennings was an American tradesman and abolitionist.

  • First African American to receive a patent.

  • Responsible for the patent of a type of dry cleaning called “dry scouring”

  • Used his fortunes for the patent to become and fund several, including his own, abolitionist activities

  • Became assistant secretary of the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, PA.

  • Jennings’s life and determination should serve as an example of what was, and what could have been, for Black people in the earliest years of the United States.


Among the leading matters which would occupy the attention of the meeting, were several important documents lately received from Europe, expressive of the sentiments that a very considerable portion of the people of the British Empire entertained respecting the deplorable situation of the colored people in the United States.”



For more information: 

https://www.invent.org/inductees/thomas-jennings

http://www.myblackhistory.net/Thomas_Jennings.htm

https://blackinventor.com/thomas-jennings/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/jennings-thomas-l-1791-1856/