Jan Matzeliger felt anything but welcome in Philadelphia in 1873. As well as being a foreigner, Jan was half African American, which meant that most doors were closed to him. Although the Civil War had been over for nearly ten years, inequality for African Americans still persisted in its aftermath. Jan Ernst Matzeliger, inventor of the shoe lasting machine, made shoes more affordable for everyone. Connecting the top of the shoe to the sole of the shoe, a process called shoe lasting. However, Jan refused to let prejudice and hardships keep him from achieving his dream of making a shoe-lasting machine to replace the tedious, time-consuming hand sewing that held up shoe manufacturing processes in his day.
Born in the Northern coast of South
Born in the Northern coast of South