Lewis Latimer

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grammar school and was an excellent student who loved to read and draw. Most of his time, though, was spent working with his father, which was typical of children in the 19th century. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that a slave named Dred Scott could not be considered a free man although he had lived in a free state. George Latimer disappeared shortly after the decision became known. Because he had no official papers to prove he was a free man, he possibly feared for his safety and that of his family.

With his father gone and his mother struggling to keep the family together, Lewis falsified his age and joined the U.S. Navy in 1864 when he was sixteen years old. When the Civil War ended he was honorably discharged and returned to Boston to seek employment. In 1868 he secured a job as an office boy in the Crosby and Gould patent law firm, a company that specialized in helping inventors protect their patents. By closely observing draftsmen at work and reading books ...

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