In the 1850’s Montgomery developed a better propeller for river steamboats.
Montgomery was born in London County, Virginia in 1819. From an early age, he demostrated that he was clever. However, he was born a slave, and didn’t learn to read and write until much later in life. But his literacy gave him the opportunity to learn land surveying and architectural drafting, and this led to him later becoming a successful engineer and inventor.
A matter of discrimination
Although there were Blacks at the time who managed to patent their inventions like Thomas L. Jennings of New York in 1821, the system wasn’t always fair or equal. In some instances to avoid discrimination, Black inventors would use white people as third parties to do it for them.
In the case of Montgomery, however, the circumstances were a lot different and more difficult. Joseph Holt, head of the Patent Office at the time, felt that a free Black man who escaped to the North simply did not have the right to patent an invention.