Did you know that enslaved Black people could not obtain patents for their inventions? Like many things in this nation, enslaved Black people did not have the right to their own creations.
The Patent Act of 1793 and 1836 prohibited enslaved Africans from obtaining patents because Black people were not citizens and were excluded from all liberties.
However, five years after the Civil War, in 1870, the U.S. government granted all inventors rights to their inventions. But for many, that was too little, too late.
In an original video, Atlanta Black Star revisits the inventions of talented and brilliant men barred from receiving credit for their creations.
