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The issuing of his patent less than a year later was the ultimate con- Jennings was also a leader in New York City’s black community. A
firmation of his belonging; it officially recognized Jennings as a U.S. native New Yorker, Jennings was among the “one thousand citizens of
citizen. This was a rare designation for a Black person at a time when color” who volunteered to dig trenches to fortify New York City during
forces such as the American Colonization Society opposed the right of the War of 1812. Well respected and highly regarded, he signed
free African Americans to live here. Certificates of Freedom for other black men vouching for their status as
Jennings’ patent generated news and controversy, neither of which free Americans. He was also a founder and trustee of the Abyssinian
he seemed to mind. It also made him a wealthier man and someone not Baptist Church, a pillar in the Harlem African-American community,
to be trifled with. When a rival tailor illegally used the invention, and a civil rights activist who organized a movement against racial
Jennings sued him in the city’s Marine Court and won $50 when he segregation in public transit in the city.
dramatically produced the Letters of Patent.
According to The Inventive Spirit of African-Americans by Patricia
Carter Sluby, Jennings was so proud of his patent letter, which was A STRONG DEFENSE
signed by Secretary of State—and later President—John Quincy After his daughter, Elizabeth Jennings, a fellow activist, was forcibly
Adams, he hung it in a gilded frame over his bed. removed from a “whites only” New York City streetcar in 1854,
Jennings used his wealth to retain the best legal representation for her.
He hired the law firm of Culver, Parker, and Arthur to sue the bus
company and was represented in court by a young attorney named
Chester Arthur, who would go on to become the 21st President of the
United States.
Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune commented on the incident in
February 1855:
She got upon one of the Company’s cars last summer, on the
Sabbath, to ride to church. The conductor undertook to get her off,
first alleging the car was full; when that was shown to be false, he
pretended the other passengers were displeased at her presence; but
(when) she insisted on her rights, he took hold of her by force to expel
her. She resisted. The conductor got her down on the platform,
jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress, and injured her person. Quite
a crowd gathered, but she effectually resisted. Finally, after the car
had gone on further, with the aid of a policeman they succeeded in
removing her.
Announcement in the March 13, 1821 New York Gazette, ten days after being
awarded his patent. The announcement also described his business offerings.

“Letters Patent Being granted under the GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED Ms. Jennings ultimately won her case in front of the Brooklyn
STATES OF AMERICA unto THOMAS L. JENNINGS, Tailor, 61 Nassau Circuit Court in 1855. The jury awarded her damages in the amount
street, New-York, for his Invention of Dry Scouring Clothes, and Woolen of $225, and $22.50 in costs. The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad
Fabrics in general, so that they keep their original shape, and have the polish Company ordered its cars desegregated. Her father lived to see the
and appearance of new, Informs the public that he is ready to execute all outcome of his daughter’s trial but died the following year. It took a
Orders entrusted to him in the above line, on reasonable terms. decade, until 1865, for all New York City streetcar companies to
He also Alters and Repairs Gentlemen’s Clothes in the neatest manner, being eliminate segregation on their lines.
regularly brought up to the Tailor’s business, and practicing in this city the last When Jennings died in 1856, Frederick Douglass described him as
14 years. He also removes stains from Cloth. N.B. Directions will be given “a bold man of color” who led an “active, earnest and blameless life,”
how Clothes may be kept in the condition they are delivered. Gentlemen’s and noted the importance of his patent that recognized Jennings as a
Clothes purchased—Military Clothes and Accoutrements sold on “citizen of the United States.”
Commission, on moderate terms.”
The epitaph on his headstone in Cypress Hills Cemetery sums up
his life in a way that respects Jennings’ greatest contribution to the
American story, that of “Defender of Human Rights.”
A POST-PATENT LEGACY
Jennings spent the first money he In 1861, five years after Jennings’ death, patent rights were
earned from his patent on legal fees to finally extended to slaves. In 1870, the U.S. government passed a
buy his family out of enslavement. patent law giving all American men including Black Americans
Jenning’s wife, Elizabeth, was born a the rights to their inventions.
slave in Delaware in 1798. Under New The “dry-scouring” process Jennings invented is essentially
York’s gradual abolition law of 1799, the same method used to this day by dry cleaning establishments,
she was converted to the status of an worldwide.
indentured servant and was not eligible
for full emancipation until 1827. After
that, he spent much of his apparently
substantial earnings on abolitionist and
civil rights causes, earning him even
greater distinctions in his lifetime for
philanthropy and activism.
In 1831, Thomas Jennings became
the assistant secretary for the First
Annual Convention of the People of
Color in Philadelphia, PA, and went
on to found Freedom’s Journal, the
first black-owned newspaper in Well respected and highly
America, and helped to found the regarded, Jennings signed Certificates
Legal Rights Association in 1855, of Freedom for other black men
raising challenges to discrimination vouching for their status as free
and funding and organizing legal Americans. (BV NYC Indentures,
defenses for court cases. MS 2085 courtesy of the New-York
Historical Society) Darko and Sons Dry Cleaning truck, Indiana, circa 1945

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