Black Inventors in History: John Parker
ENTREPRENEUR - FREEDOM FIGHTER - INVENTOR
John Parker was born in 1827 in Norfolk, VA. He was enslaved and was sold at the age of 8, from Virginia to Mobile, AL. Imagine what is was like for an eight-year-old child to be sold away from his family and mother and taken in chains to Mobile, AL. He said, in a later interview, that he hated the trip and tried to crush the flowers he saw along the way because they were free and he was not.
In Alabama he was owned by a doctor. The doctor’s family taught John Parker to read and write, and as he got older, he was sent to work in an iron foundry (a place or factory for casting metal). There, at the foundry, he was allowed to keep some of the money from his wages (and the rest went to his owner). John Parker was smart. He convinced an elderly patient of his owner’s to buy him. When she bought him he was then able to take the portion of the money he earned from the foundry and pay her for his freedom.
That way, by the time he was 18 years old in 1845, he was able to buy his freedom. John Parker ended up settling in Ripley, Ohio, along the Ohio River, just across from Kentucky.
There he became an inventor. He secured a home and established his own foundry behind his home. He was one of a few African Americans to hold multiple patents in the 1800s. In 1884, he patented a Follower Screw for Tobacco Presses which was useful in cutting tobacco. In 1890, he patented improvements to the Soil Pulverizer, in particular rotary pulverizers.
Click to see drawings, up close, from each patent.
But, before he distinguished himself with official patents, he was an active participant on the “Underground Railroad.”
According to one account, he was approached one day by a black man and a white man. The Black man had escaped from Kentucky—across the river— and was looking for help for a group of people who were stuck on the other side of the river. John Parker, wasn’t sure if the story was really true or not, but he decided to go to help, but he took two guns and a knee with him for protection.
He went across the Ohio River and sure enough they found the group of people—10 of them—hiding in the place where the man had communicated. The person who was guiding them had been caught and they needed another guide across the river.
John Parker was very familiar with the traffic on the river and was the right man for the job. He instructed the people to go along the ravine where they are traveling, and when one of them tried to turn back, he threatened shoot them if they endangered everyone else.
They eventually made to the river, ahead of schedule, so the man who was supposed to meet them with a boat was not at the meeting place. John Parker instructed the group to go down toward the ferry, because he knew there were usually extra boats tied up there and he thought they might be able to get one.
As they got close to the ferry area, they saw a man on patrol—since he was by himself he didn’t try to get them, but ran off. John told everyone to hurry. They did find a boat and were still looking for the oars as they heard dogs coming toward them in the distance. They found the oars, but as they jumped into the boat they quickly figured out that everyone wouldn’t fit. They pushed off and two men were left standing on the shore, unable to fit in the small boat.
A woman yelled out and cried that, that was her husband standing on the shore and she didn’t want to leave him. Without saying a word, one of the men on the boat (who was not married) immediately got out of the boat and let the woman’s husband take his place.
References:
“African-American Inventors II,” National Geographic, accessed online March 2023.
“African-American Inventors of the 18th Century,” National Geographic, accessed online March 2023.
“John P. Parker, Conductor, on the Underground Railroad,” History Matters: The U. S. Survey Course on the Web. George Mason University, accessed online March 2023.
“John P. Parker House,” Aboard the Underground Railroad. National Park Service, accessed online, March 8, 2023.
John P. Parker (September 2, 1884), Follower Screw for Tobacco Presses. Patent No. 304,552.
John P. Parker (December 9, 1890), Soil-Pulverizer. Patent No. 442,538.
“Parker, John P.” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed online, March 8, 2023.