He was born in Glen Ross, Maryland, with little knowledge about his childhood. In the patent records, Blair is listed as a “colored man,” making this identification the only one of its kind in early patent records.
HENRY BLAIR
Seed-Planter
Patented October 14, 1834
Born 1807–1860
Henry Blair was the only inventor to be identified in the Patent Office records as “a colored man.” Blair was born in Montgomery County, Maryland around 1807. He received a patent on October 14, 1834, for a seed planter and a patent in 1836 for a cotton planter.
Henry Blair was the second Black inventor to receive a patent the first was Thomas Jennings who received a patent in 1821 for a dry cleaning process.
Henry Blair signed his patents with an “x” because he could not write. Henry Blair died in 1860.
His first invention was the Seed-Planter, patented on October 14, 1834, which allowed farmers to plant more corn using less labor and in a shorter time, he estimated that his invention did the work of eight men.
On August 31, 1836, Blair obtained a patent for his mechanical cotton planter. The device is essentially an adaptation of Blair’s corn planter optimized for cotton.
When his patents were granted, United States patent law allowed freed and enslaved people to obtain patents. In 1857, this law was challenged by a slave owner who claimed that he owned “all the fruits of the slave’s labor,” including his slave’s inventions. This resulted in a change of law in 1858, which stated that slaves were not citizens and could not hold patents. Blair had been a successful farmer for years and developed inventions to increase efficiency in farming.
Resources
Henry Blair (1807-1860)
Farmer and a pioneering inventor Henry Blair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Blair_(inventor)https://aaregistry.org/story/henry-blair-inventor-born/