Thomas L. Jennings

Thomas L. Jennings (1791 – February 12, 1856) [Death Record Thomas L. Jennings NYC #447562] was an African-American tradesman and abolitionist in New York City, New York. He operated and owned a tailoring and dry-cleaning business, and, in 1821, he was the first African American to be granted a patent for the first ever dry cleaner.

Jennings became active in working for his race and civil rights for the black community. In 1831, he was selected as assistant secretary to the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which met in June 1831. He helped arrange legal defense for his daughter, Elizabeth Jennings, in 1854 when she challenged a private streetcar company's segregation of seating and was arrested. She was defended by the young Chester Arthur, and won her case the next year.

With two other prominent black leaders, Jennings organized the Legal Rights Association in 1855 in New York, which raised challenges to discrimination and organized legal defense for court cases. He founded and was a trustee of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, a leader in the black community.

Thomas L. Jennings was born free to a free black family in New York City. As a youth, he learned a trade as a tailor, which included dry-cleaning. He built a business and married a woman named Elizabeth, who was born in 1798 in Delaware into slavery and died March 5, 1873. (Death Record NYC #cn 142327). Under New York's gradual abolition law of 1799, she was converted to the status of an indentured servant and was not eligible for full emancipation until 1827. Children born to slave mothers before 1827 were considered to be born free, but were required to serve apprenticeships to her master until they reached their mid to late 20s. He and his wife had three children: Matilda Jennings (b. 1824, d. 1886), Elizabeth Jennings (b. March 1827 d. June 5, 1901), and James E. Jennings (b. 1832). Matilda Jennings was a dressmaker and wife of James A. Thompson, a Mason. Elizabeth Jennings was the wife of Charles Graham, whom she married on June 18, 1860. James E. Jennings was a public school teacher.

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