Denise Lewis Patrick - VIP: Lewis Latimer: Engineering Wizard

For Jackson

Young Lewis Latimer looked at his notes, then at the drawing on his desk. It had to be perfect. He knew he was very good at making detailed drawings for engineers and scientists. Would the man who hired him agree? He picked up his ruler to check his measurements once more. He was tired because hed already worked a full day. But he was excited, too!

Not long ago, Lewis, an African American draftsman and office manager, had met Alexander Bella teacher of deaf students at a nearby school. They were almost the same age and they were both inventors in their spare time. Bell had heard about Latimers drawing talent, and he needed it.

The newest invention Bell was working on might change the world. It was a machine that could send a human voice over a wire. Although most people in 1876 didnt believe the telephone could ever work, Latimer knew that Bell wasnt the only inventor with this idea. In fact, there was now a race to see who could get drawings and plans to the US Patent Office in Washington, DC, first! They were running out of time.

The clock ticked past ten as Lewis waited for Bell to arrive. If Bell approved the drawings, theyd be rushed to his lawyer and then to the patent office. Who would win the right to make telephones in America? Would it be Alexander Graham Bell, or the other inventor the newspapers talked about, Thomas Edison?

And what would any of it mean for the future of Lewis Howard Latimerscientist, inventor, poet, artist, and the son of escaped slaves?

Long before Lewis was born, his parents made a brave decision. On an October night in 1842, they ran away from the Virginia plantations where they had been enslaved people. George and Rebecca Latimer were ready to risk their lives to escape. It was worth it, they thought, to make sure that their children would be born free.

They hoped to get to Boston, Massachusettsa city that had become a safe haven for runaways. In the Northern states there was a large free Black population and there were many abolitionists. Boston was nearly five hundred miles away, several days travel on land and water.

George and Rebecca sneaked onto a ship in the port of Norfolk. It was headed for Baltimore, Maryland. They hid for nine hours, lying in the darkness below deck.

In Baltimore, George bought tickets to board another ship to Philadelphia. For that part of the journey he was able to disguise himself as a white gentleman because he was very light-skinned. Rebecca pretended to be his servant. Finally, after almost four days on the run, they arrived in Boston. But their dream of freedom quickly turned into a nightmare.

A man from Norfolk recognized George and contacted his owner, James Gray. Gray had put an advertisement in newspapers offering a fifty-dollar reward for his Negro Man George. Rebeccas owner had done the same. Days after the Latimers set foot in Boston, George was arrested and charged with larceny, which actually meant he was accused of stealing himself!

The African American community was outraged. While Rebecca was taken to a secret hiding place in the city, almost three hundred Black men surrounded the courthouse where George was held, demanding that the authorities not release him to Gray.

Well-known abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison came to Georges defense. Another group, calling itself the Latimer Committee, even started a newspaper to report news about the case, the Latimer Journal and North Star. Frederick Douglass, who had escaped slavery himself and become a powerful speaker against the institution, got involved.

The Antislavery Movement

The first enslaved Africans were brought to America in 1619. By the late 1700s many Americans felt slavery was wrong and should be abolished, or ended for good.

Abolitionists spoke out against slavery in books and newspapers. They traveled across the country and around the world, giving speeches. The abolitionist movement included Northerners and Southerners, men and women, Black and white people.

There was a strong antislavery community in the Boston area. At the time the Latimers arrived, the New England Anti-Slavery Society had both Black and white members.

Many citizens began to demand new Massachusetts laws to protect runaway enslaved people. While George was being held in jail, James Gray came to town demanding the return of his property. The