I Bet You've Never Heard This One Before!!

Black History Fact: She Hid the Bed; and Got a Patent For It!! 

     I heard a 'Black History Fact' on the car radio the other day that was one I'd never heard of before; one that was surprising, and one that made me more aware than ever of how little we are being taught about the history of black people in this country. It seems to me that we are taught more about the history of how the slaves were brought here, their lives as slaves on the Massa's plantation picking cotton, and how hard they worked to try to escape being slaves than we are about any achievements made in more modern times. In my younger days I suppose there weren't as many to be taught about, but of what there was, it was only what was already 'old news'  (George Washington Carver, Harriett Tubman, Frederick Douglass) that students were taught. Now there is so much more that students could be learning about their culture, their ancestors, and themselves, but they are learning even less than they did then, not only because they are taught less, but also because they are not being instilled with the pride of their heritage that we were. 

That's one of my reasons for starting this blog, in the hope that I might be able to spread some of the 'Black History' that we were never taught in school, and show how much of an impact we actually have made (and continue to make) on modern American civilization. Barack Obama is not our only lasting legacy!

Sarah E. Goode & a diagram of her Cabinet Bed

This fact is about a woman who was born in 1850 into slavery. She was very aware of the challenges most of her friends and neighbors underwent in their day-to-day lives living in small, cramped spaces where there usually wasn't enough room for the people, let alone furniture and a bed. By the time she was 35 Sarah Elisabeth Goode had invented the Cabinet Bed; something like the Murphy Bed, but her bed did not roll up into the wall. Hers was designed to do dual duty as a bed at night and a rolltop writing desk during the day. Her invention had cubbyholes designed to hold stationary and writing supplies, and had a flat surface on which to write. 

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A larger diagram of the Cabinet Bed.

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A photo of what her invention may have looked like. 

     

Sarah Goode received her freedom at the end of the Civil War. She moved to Chicago, and there met her husband, Archibald Goode who was a carpenter. Together they ran their own furniture business, where they met a lot of people facing the issue of living in small spaces. These were just the kind of people for whom her Cabinet Bed was made.

             

Patent received by Sarah E. Goode, 1885

       Not much is known of Sarah E. Goode after she received the US patent in 1885, other than that she died in 1905.

 

Note:

A tailor in New York City, Thomas L. Jennings is credited with being the first African American to hold a U.S. patent. The patent, which was issued in 1821, was for a dry-cleaning process.